Nabak-kimchi is a watery Kimchi that contains napa cabbage and white radish slices as its main ingredients. It is usually served in the spring, but the fresh taste can be enjoyed in any season. Nabak-kimchi is placedon the table for ancestral rites, and served with Tteokguk(rice cake soup) for the first meal of each LunarNew Year. Because retaining the freshness is essential to a good Nabak-kimchi, wealthy families were said tohave made it every other day.
Nabak-kimchi means kimchi made with square-cut vegetables('Na-bak-Na-bak' adds to the verb, 'to cut', the meaning, 'into squares'), but it could also mean kimchi made with white radish, considering that white radish was once called 'Nabok'. Nabak-kimchi is not only served with regular meals, but is also with snacks such as rice cakes, Mandu(dumplings), Yaksik(sweet rice with nuts and jujubes) or other sweets. This is because the fresh tangy liquid stimulates the palate, and the digestive enzymes in the white radish calm the stomach. Kimchi liquid is sometimes used in the broths for Guksumari or Naengmyeon(wheat or buckwheat noodles in cold broth), but it is especially good to wash down sticky rice cake pieces. The 'kimchi soup' in the saying, 'drinking kimchi soup before getting any rice cakes', refers to the liquid of Nabak-kimchi.
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