If you are one of the tens of thousands of expats who call Korea your home, this entire post will come of no surprise. However, for those of you whose experience of the South (the sane one) is limited to the occasional K-pop hit, CNN, and that one guy you knew who taught there, these are some things they might have left out of their rosy tale of highlights and nightmares. You know, that mildly-interesting stuff.
1) The Kimchi Fridge
Kimchi is one of the staple side dishes in Korea with a penetrating smell that even I can sense (for those who don’t know, my sense of smell is terrible). Unless you live in Korea though, you probably aren’t aware that Koreans have a specific fridge where they ONLY store kimchi. This kimchi fridge serves three purposes.
First, it frees up space in the main fridge. Many Korean families make kimchi to last the entire year during the harvest when cabbage is cheap, accumulating to a shit ton quite a lot of kimchi. Second, the smell is something even Koreans are conscious of. It is best to separate it from the rest of the food as no variety of Tupperware will stop it from making everything in your fridge smell like pickled cabbage. Finally, the fridge can change the conditions of its compartments to divide everyday kimchi, kimchi for soup, and so on.