All this talk about contests lately reminds us… It’s been months since we experienced our glorious first place win at the CRITTER Kimchi Contest, and we apologize for not writing about it sooner, but we were busy handling all the excitement surrounding the event (Translation: We were victory prancing around the office with the amazing handcrafted trophy they gave us. The little guy is holding up a tiny Fimo clay napa cabbage. So clever!).
We caught a last minute flight to San Francisco from LA just for the event, and starting with a 3:30am wakeup (groan) to catch our flight it was an exhausting, but verrry exciting day. In making our plans, we were pretty confident that the sheer awesomeness of our kimchi would make it stand out from the 20 or so professional and amateur kimchimonger competitors, otherwise we wouldn’t have gone at all.
But as the day went on and over a hundred voters made their way past the tasting tables, we began to grow anxious. Even as professionals, we’ve never eaten that much kimchi in a single day before. It was a little overwhelming. Could everyone really distinguish the difference between all these varieties of kimchi, or would their taste buds go numb from the sheer volume of pepper? Would they choose novelty over flavor? Would the entire trip have been for naught?
Well, we’re hugely relieved that it all worked out and Granny Choe’s original / cabbage kimchi was voted the best tasting specimen in the joint. We won the previously mentioned adorable trophy, the complete DVD set of K-drama The Grand Chef and almost enough cash money to cover airfare for one. All in all, a huge stinkin’ success!
