Kimchi and The Bird Flu

WSET is reporting:

"Did You Know, there's talk of a new treatment, to stop the spread of the avian flu in birds? The treatment? Kimchi."

Having lived in South Korea for three years, I can tell you that the Kimchi in the United States is a much politer version than what is common in South Korea. Kimchi there will knock your socks off. Besides rice the fermented cabbage dish was there second most eaten food group besides rice. And they were fanatics on how to store it. You see Kimchi on American grocery shelves in glass bottles. Traditionally Kimchi was stored in clay pots, and as far as the South Koreans were concerned was the only way to store it.

One of my fondest memories of Kimchi was all those clay pots stored on one of their Navy destroyers. I put out to sea with them, and we hit a heck of a storm, and nearly capsized. In fact one of the Americans I was with fell out of his bunk and broke his collar bone.

Kimchi pots were busted everywhere. We had recommended previously that they should store Kimchi another way, but we were told there is only one way to store Kimchi, and that was in clay pots. The Kimchi was so strong that if it was stored any other way it would likely eat right through the container.

WSET further states:

"They say bacteria in the kimchi, when given to birds, boosts their immune systems, helping them fight off the virus."

This does not surprise me at all. Kimchi is so strong there, it could kill any old virus. And one more thought for you when you eat your next quarter pounder. The ration of meat in the Korean Navy was 7 grams per month. Think about that when you take the first bite out of that quarter pounder, you just ate the month ration for a Korean Sailor.