I watched Bobby Flay’s kimchi making on his show, Boy Meets Grill on the Food Network channel today.
All I can say is OMG OMG! If you guys saw it together with me, I’m sure we would all make a loud voice “OMG.”
First he chopped the whole cabbage crosswise, without first splitting it lengthwise, and put all the pieces of cabbage in a large bowl. He skipped the salting process.
Then he made sauce for kimchi using his food processor. He poured dark soy sauce into the food processor which made my eyes open wide. We don’t use soy sauce in kimchi except for fresh geotjori style salads. I thought, “hmm, he may make fresh geotjeori style kimchi.” I sat back on my couch comfortably again.
Then he squirted vinegar! Oops! Kimchi’s sour taste comes from the fermentation process, not from vinegar! He made me sit straight up again. He forced the cabbage to get sour with vinegar!
Ironically, in the direction in the recipe, it says, “Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days before serving to let the cabbage wilt and the flavors meld.” Do you know what’s wrong with it? I think everybody who makes homemade kimchi can figure it out. It should be “… to let the cabbage ferment.” If he made geotjori style salad, he should say, “serve it right after making it.”
Oh wait, not yet done, right after that, I could not believe to see he poured lots of vegetable oil into it! If my mother, sisters, friends see this, they will be so shocked!
Hello, hello, Food Network! Are you crazy?
I can’t imagine some oil floating on my kimchi juice! You should do some more research before demonstrating how to cook ethnic food!
I know everybody deserves to enjoy his or her own variation of a recipe. They can modify any recipe to their taste, but some essential things can’t be changed. Imagine someone making Italian spaghetti sauce with tomatoes, ground beef, hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, and a little bit of fish sauce! : )
You can be creative to make your own recipe by using kimchi such as kimchi hot dog, kimchi pizza, kimchi taco, but you can’t put oil and vinegar in kimchi.
One scene of the show had Bobby Flay shopping in a huge Korean grocery store with a Korean speaking woman. How come she didn’t stop him from putting oil in the kimchi? Maybe she left after shopping with him, then I can understand.
Take a look at all the good kimchi photos sent by my readers posted on my website! Food Network people should do more research before releasing some ethnic food recipe.
I think in this recipe at least, Bobby Flay should change the title of the food to “My version of kimchi salad,” which is much more accurate, because this isn’t the kind of kimchi that I know.
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