>>1542346>>1542379You're both white, kimchi ranges from fantastic to absolute garbage. In order of descending level of tasty you have 3/4 year fermented > high quality 2 hour quick kimchi > over 6 month kimchi > under 6 month kimchi. Most stuff you get in a store is likely a couple weeks fermented at best, the really good stuff is locked in giant clay pots underground and you can only get it at specialty markets or nice restaurants. The longer it ferments the better it gets and the less "just spicy" it tastes. The super quick stuff requires specialized equipment and is frequently pretty far from what you'd consider normal cabbage or radish kimchi, but it still tastes great as a cold condiment. There's also the issue of the recipe itself, since a lot of them just use plain gochugaru the flavors are really one note, but the best ones use a combination of sometimes up to 5 or 6 different chilis. Gochugaru flakes are actually only a single pepper and it's frankly not one of the most flavorful ones. The best kimchi I ever had was made with gochugaru, aleppo, bird's eye, and pequin, and it was fermented for only 7 hours. The second best was some stuff that was just gochugaru and it was fermented for 3 years. Stop thinking kimchi is just "spicy fermented cabbage from the cultural ripoff nation" it's like saying all french breads are the same thing. It's an entire genre of dish you can't generalize it effectively.