Kimchi And Peanut Butter Sandwiches

The fermented cabbage rocket-launches out of the jar, like a horror-flick jack-in-the-box, as I settle in to make a kimchi and peanut butter sandwich that my friend Nick swears by. "Kimchi fizzes when you open it," reassures another pal,  Zora O'Neill, author of Forking Fantastic, via my Facebook lifeline.

Another food-savvy friend weighs in: "If you think about it, sesame plays a large roll in Korean cuisine, and sesame and peanut have extremely close flavor profiles," writes Naomi Bishop, a communications manager for the Northwest's Metropolitan Market.

I layer hippie-crunchy peanut butter on one side of the wholewheat bread, pickled vegetable on the other. I wonder if this is all an elaborate hoax, like the way people hunt snipe or rave about durian.

Koreans supposedly eat 40lbs a year of their national dish. I can't wuss out over three tablespoons of the stuff.

I fold. I bite. I panic slightly, as my palette swings between the fat, round peanuts and the tart kimchi with its chili flair. And then I settle into a groove. It works. It really does. Not enough to abandon tonight's mac and cheese in the oven, mind you, but enough to try again, certainly.

Kimchi and peanut butter. We who are about to die from the smell salute you!

Kimchi and peanut butter sandwich: not as scary as is sounds. Image copyright www.amandacastleman.com