- I just spit.
- I hope my grandma never watches this.
- What's up? I'm Joelle.
- I'm Danielle.
- I'm Micah and I have.
- Never made.
- Kimchi before.
- My family is half Chinese, half Korean.
And growing up, both cultures
definitely had a heavy impact on our upbringing.
However, I never took the time to learn
how to make some really fundamental
Korean and Chinese dishes.
And kimchi is undoubtedly one
of the pinnacles of Korean cuisines.
I decided to challenge my sisters
on this wonderful learning experience.
Each of us will be making our own kimchi
without a recipe, for the first time.
And after we let it stew and ferment
my parents are going to do a blind taste test
and see which of our kimchis is the most accurate.
- To be honest, I'm not much of a cook in general.
I would say that I'm a big frozen dumplings kind of person.
- In general, in the kitchen I'm very comfortable.
I love to cook for my family.
- I am not comfortable in the kitchen.
Well, okay, I can make pasta.
So I know there is cabbage.
- Which I salted for all of us.
- Gochujang.
- Red pepper flakes which is the gochugaru.
- There are those baby shrimp thingies.
- Sugar.
- I think there's garlic.
- Fish sauce.
- (laughs) Is that it?
- Calling on the ancestors to come through.
- I like how there are like these two measuring spoons.
As if I have any idea,
like how much of anything should go in there?
- I don't know, this is like a tablespoon.
- All I know about the kimchi preparation process
is that it's effectively a paste that you make.
And then you just rub all over the kimchi.
You let it sit for like a week.
- I know that it's usually done in like big batches,
like I think normally.
And in like Korean dramas
you see them doing it like pounds and pounds of cabbage.
Even my grandma when she would do it
I think she did it like for a huge batch at a time.
- Oh my gosh.
- (Danielle dry heaves)
A serving size is one tablespoon.
So I'm going to assume that I should use a whole tablespoon.
- Being able to make traditional Korean dishes
is really important to me because
I feel like growing up in a Asian-American home,
second slash third generation.
- It's definitely harder to connect with my cultural roots.
- It's because growing up in America
our parents are taught to assimilate.
So it wasn't necessarily part of growing up
to do some really key things
that I think were probably more normal.
- Back in my parents' day
Is a teaspoon too much sugar?
Oh well.
I would say that this is probably something
I feel guilty not knowing how to do.
And that's it.
- So I'm mixing my three things together.
'Cause yeah, I don't know what else goes in it.
- It's too thick.
- Ooh, he's chunky. I just spit.
- Dear God, what do I add?
- I can see antennas from the shrimp.
Which is making me think
that maybe I should have cut them up.
Too late now.
- Now I'm just going to add shrimp juice
and not add the salt.
- It tastes too sweet. I think it needs salt.
I think it needs this.
- Ew, ew, ew, shrimp liquids.
Okay, I'm putting in a tablespoon of shrimp sweat.
- So now I think I'm just gonna shove it in there.
I feel like I hope my grandma never watches this video.
- This is my cabbage bb.
Can you like hear it?
(squishing sound)
(Danielle coughs)
- I feel like I'm like massaging
a sea creature or something.
- This is my kimchi.
- So this is my final look.
- Stick her in the fridge
and hope that it's not disgusting in a week.
- I am Chinese American.
- And I am 100% Korean ethnically.
- When I got married into my husband's Korean family,
my mother-in-law was a very good cook
and taught me how to make a lot of Korean dishes
like kimchi.
- Are you ready?
Hmm.
Well, it's not good, but it's not horrible.
I'm going to clean my palette.
- [Mom} I thought it was okay.
- [Joelle] Out of 10 what do you rate it?
- Three.
- I would say five.
- I'm going in for the second one.
I'm afraid to taste the big piece.
I just want a little piece.
Mm.
I would almost say this might be the store bought one
because it's pretty good.
- It's very fermented, which I don't like.
I like fresh kimchi the best.
- But I like it. I give it a eight.
- I give it a three.
- Mm
- [Joelle] Dad's like that piece is too big.
- Too much sauce.
(girls laughing)
- Texture looks like, it looks like (laughing).
- That's not edible. That is not good.
Over salted and put way too much, I dunno, something.
- I sort of like it.
- Not edible.
What?
- I sort of like it. I love salty.
- I would have to give that a zero out of 10.
Sorry.
- Probably a six.
- I'm looking for another small piece.
- This one seems so fresh and there's not enough salt
so it just tastes like, yeah.
- [Female Off Stage] Cabbage?
- A little light, yeah, light kimchi.
Actually the flavors okay.
- It's very bland. That fish sauce flavor is gone.
- I would eat it with some rice?
I'd give that a six.
- Three.
It's just 'cause we have very different tastes.
The number two is store bought.
I would say Danielle did the least flavored.
Micah.
And Joelle.
- That was my initial impression too.
- I actually think that's Joelle.
This is Danielle.
This is Micah.
- Should I do it?
- [Joelle] Turn it over, yeah.
- Micah.
- Store-bought, I'm two out of two.
I'm three out of three, four out of four.
- Oh my gosh, daddy got it.
- Thank you very much.
- People have very different opinions
about what they like in terms of spiciness.
You can't really say one is right or wrong.
- Oh, no June.
- Your preference.
- When you taste really good kimchi,
you'll know it's really good kimchi.
- Normally when making kimchi,
everyone starts out salting the cabbage.
They let the cabbage soak in the salt
for about a minimum of five hours.
Depending on how much salt you use,
you'll rinse off all the cabbage.
And you'll make a paste that is composed
of the red pepper flakes called gochugaru,
baby salted shrimp, it's called saeujot,
fish sauce, garlic and ginger.
Good job girls.