Free Republic

Six thousand people will be invited to make kimchi in downtown Seoul over the weekend at the fifth Seoul Kimchi Festival. The annual festival will kick off at Seoul Plaza and nearby Mugyo-dong area on Friday through Sunday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said. People in Korea have traditionally made a large amount of kimchi before winter, so they can eat the fermented cabbage during the cold season when it is hard to get greens. Kimjang, the winter kimchi-making practice where families and neighbors gather to exchange labor and share food, is designated on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. During this...

Kimchi, a well-known traditional fermented Korean food, is highly effective in preventing influenza virus in winter, according to the results of cell·animal experiments. A joint research team from the Korea Food Research Institute and the World Institute of Kimchi recently announced that lactic acid bacteria and fermentation metabolites in kimchi inhibit the growth of influenza virus -- proving kimchi's effectiveness against flu for the first time in the world, along with the genetic information of strains(metagenome), fermentation metabolites, and bioactive mechanism. Flu viruses are pathogens that cause acute respiratory conditions in winter. Swine flu (influenza A), which struck the world...

Why couldn't they sneak one or several into various shipping containers bound for various ports in the US and elsewhere?

Best I can tell, the former South Korean minister of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries is trying to convince me that fermented cabbage could be sold at Sephora as a regenerative skin-care product. “I’m 73 years old,” says Sung-Hoon Kim, standing under the Gwangju World Kimchi Culture Festival tent in Bull Run Regional Park last Friday in Centreville. “Do you see any wrinkles on me?” As I inspect his round, friendly, bespectacled face, I have to admit that I don’t. Well into his eighth decade on Earth, Kim has no crow’s feet around his eyes and no apparent worry lines...

South Korea's kimchi crisis has deepened, after the president was forced to step in amid fears that cabbage rustlers were descending on farms to steal the key ingredient in the nation's national dish. Kimchi is a fiery side-dish of pickled cabbage President Lee Myung-bak has this week ordered the government to block the price of staple foodstuffs from rising above international levels after the price of cabbage, which is used to make the fiery dish, increased sharply. "There is no reason for people on low incomes to purchase items that are necessary to daily life at higher prices than international...

This Just In: Nuclear Explosion just Kimchee! Scientists have determined that no nuclear explosion took place in North Korea yesterday. Instead, it was determined that the explosion that caused the 4.2 seismic event was merely a large batch of buried kimchee that exploded due to an excess of gas. Kimchee is a highly-seasoned Korean fermented cabbage dish, popular in that country. It is often prepared by burying the pot containing the fermenting in the earth until fermentation reaches the desired level. As with all fermented food items, the fermentation releases carbon dioxide gas. If the container is sealed, an explosion...

FORT LEE -- The proposal is straightforward and well intentioned: A Korean-English bilingual class where Korean-speaking children would learn English, and English-speaking students would be taught Korean, a language growing in use in pockets of northern New Jersey. But officials are struggling to sell the concept to parents, particularly families of English-speaking students. At School 3, where such a program would be launched, parents raised questions about whether the class, known as a dual-language immersion program, was practical. "English is hard enough as it is to learn," said Maureen Stitham, adding she didn't think the class would be ideal for...

When the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife were crowned the "King and Queen of Peace" on March 23\super \nosupersub -- inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building with Members of Congress looking on -- few news outlets took notice. But in the months since Moon's March 23\super rd\nosupersub "coronation" as Messiah, a growing number of people are questioning the appropriateness of allowing a "coronation" to take place inside a government building. At a press conference on Wednesday, Jewish, Muslim and Christian representatives from the organization that sponsored Moon's coronation unapologetically defended the ceremony, its location, and Moon's Messiah declaration....

Blood is boiling to the point of scorching explosion in some quarters of South Korea toward terrorist [and by extension], Islam, as news settles in that a South Korean man had been beheaded this week by Islamic fundamental terrorists in Iraq.Police cordons are being thrown up around Islamic mosques in S. Korea. The main mosque in Seoul has been flooded with death threats and bomb threats.Last night (US time), a building housing Islamic interests in Inchon, South Korea (about a hour from Seoul) was hit by vandalism. People are really pissed at these murders and decapitations. Koreans, (the "Irish of...

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — You’d probably be hard pressed to get kimchee-flavored noodles on the streets of Baghdad these days. Unless your caring mother is sending them from South Korea. Over the last few months, Meacha Sullivan has sent several cases of the spicy hot noodles to her son, 1st Lt. Patrick Sullivan. The 26-year-old officer, who has been in the Army about three years, is stationed somewhere in Baghdad with the 596th Signal Company, his mother said. Sullivan’s pasta pipeline started with a few packages tucked in a care package for Patrick — but the noodles caught on....