Dishes

Kimchi

kim-CHEE

Also Known As Gimchi

Citation Formats

General Reference

Food and Drink Atlas. "Kimchi." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/kimchi.

APA Style

Food and Drink Atlas. (n.d.). Kimchi. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/kimchi

BibTeX

@misc{foodanddrinkatlas-kimchi,
  author = {Food and Drink Atlas},
  title = {Kimchi},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/kimchi},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A Korean dish of salted, seasoned and fermented vegetables, most often napa cabbage and Korean radish, mixed with chili powder (gochugaru), garlic, ginger and fermented seafood or fish sauce, then left to ferment. Kimchi accompanies nearly every Korean meal, and kimjang, the seasonal communal practice of making it in bulk before winter, was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.

Kimjang, the communal winter kimchi-making tradition, was recognized by UNESCO in 2013 as part of South Korea's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Period, From (Year)

from 1241 1

the subject's own accountMarks a poem on Korean radish by 13th-century literatus Yi Gyubo (died 1241), the earliest secure documentary evidence that radish kimchi was common in Goryeo (918-1392); earlier Goguryeo-period fermented vegetables are described in later sources but are not independently dated.

Origin Regionthe subject's own account

Korea (Korean peninsula) 1

Origin Period, To (Year)

to 1850 1

the subject's own accountMarks the 19th century, by which point chili peppers, introduced to Korea only in the early 17th century, had become the standard ingredient defining kimchi's now-familiar red form.

Cross-Tradition Connections