Japanese Kimchi

When I saw the Wild Brine label that read: Kimchi, Japanese, I had to put one in my shopping cart. Japanese Kimchi? There’s no way that could be bad. As you can see from the empty bottle in the picture, it is tasty stuff. I should mention that the kimchi is not spicy. At first, I was disappointed by the lack of heat, especially since it has both horseradish and chile pepper in the ingredient list. The fact that the kimchi was tangy rather than hot ended up making it a much more functional ingredient in our house. Amaya’s palate is getting spicier by the day, but moderate heat is still a smarter option at our table.

The ingredient list also contains Napa cabbage, daikon radish, carrots, water, tamari soy sauce, red miso, sea salt, ginger, garlic, and orange peel. The kimchi tasted very Japanese to me, with a deep earthy, umami flavor, and the fact that it wasn’t spicy is completely in line with traditional Japanese pickles. It was delicious paired with simple steamed rice and nori, and a great addition to fried rice and ramen. It was also fabulous on top of hard boiled eggs—what can I say, I’m on an egg kick. That was pretty much the whole jar. I picked up another one today though and I’ve got lots of ideas…