100 Things I Love About Korea # 31: Food - Kimchi

Kimchi is literally Korea's national food.  It's almost as important as the national flag.  It's combines the symbolic food power of apple pie, hot dogs, Thanksgiving turkey, and hamburgers & french fries.  According to Koreans, it will cure all that ails you (unless it's an ulcer that ails you).
When we came to Korea, Bill and Gail Patch said, "You need to learn to like Kimchi."  They were right, but it wasn't easy.  It's spicy (not a problem for me, but a problem for Sarah) and very sour.  Think hot pepper sauerkraut.
Honestly, for our first year or so, we had just one small piece of kimchi every time we ate out at a Korean restaurant - just because we "had" to, just because we knew that we needed to learn to like it.  It actually worked.  Slowly, we moved from hating kimchi ... to being able to tolerate kimchi ... to actually liking some kimchi ... to liking most kimchi's ... to finishing our kimchi dish and asking for refills at almost every Korean meal.
Oh Kimchi, how I will miss thee.