Lucky Foods Seoul Vegan Spicy Kimchi, (56oz / 3.5 lbs), Authentic Korean Premium Fermented Napa Cabbage Kimchi (VEGAN, SPICY, Made in USA) (Pack of 1)

I’m Korean and live about 2 hours away from a Korean/Asian store and don’t always have the time to make the trek to get Korean food. I spent a lot of time researching what’s available online, and Seoul Kim Chi is about the only brand that uses Napa cabbage, ginger, garlic, salted shrimp, and fish sauce. Most of what’s online doesn’t use these ingredients and looks like it will taste like spicy sauerkraut.I was very nervous about getting Kim Chi mailed to me, but was pleasantly surprised by the taste and quality. Since it’s fresh, it will need to ferment for several days which accounts for the shipping time. Also, to the people complaining about the bag not being full, there needs to be some room in the bag for the gases that develop while it is fermenting. Explosions/leakage are possible so they have to account for that. The Kimchi has to stay in the brine (liquid part) to ferment properly, and the Kim Chi will produce more liquid as it ferments more.I will order again next time I’m out of Kim Chi and not able to make it to the Korean store anytime soon. Happy I found this, it will definitely do for the interim.

Oh my god. OH MY GOD!!! I am so, so happy. I am going to finish this way faster than I should, then I'll be out of kimchi and I will be sad again. I put it in a jar (with a burp lid) for storage instead of the bag it was in. It was shipped insulated, and with ice packs (they were still cold when I finally received it). I am WILDLY happy about this stuff, it is DELICIOUS.Amazon had me worried with the "your package is late!" messages. The listing warns this will not arrive quickly. The reviews warn this will not arrive quickly. Someone needs to communicate this to Amazon, because well before I expected the package I got Amazon notices like "Your package may have been lost!" and "Ask for a refund if it doesn't show up by yesterday!" and other such things. I think it may have been delayed in transit, not necessarily by the shipper, but who cares it got here. Either way, I trusted in the warnings about how long it might take, and sure enough...IT ARRIVED IN AN APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF TIMEIT WAS SO VERY WORTH THE WAIT, SO WORTH IT!I'm debating putting this on my automatic orders list with my vitamins and such so it shows up at delicious intervals. I could have curled up in bed with the warm (it was left on the porch) fluffy (heat and time makes fermentation go big gassy) package. I was so happy it arrived, and I trusted it was quality, and you know what? It is. It's scrumptious. I don't ever want to be without it. I let a friend try it and he's pretty hooked on kimchi now too...but he can't have any more of this batch! It's mine! MINE!If you're debating because of the price, or the length of delivery time... just put the money down, pull up a chair and wait by the door. Took about two weeks for mine to show up. It's SO worth it! Don't let Amazon freak you out with the auto 'this isn't coming from the warehouse so it's taking too long!' kind of messages. If you're worried about anything, check in with the seller. I didn't, everything was just fine.Let me end this review by saying, one more time, this is a DELICIOUS and quite AUTHENTIC kimchi. It is worth the price and worth the wait and my god it is so, SO GOOD.

Ironically, I am also located in Beaverton, Oregon, I could have gone to your kitchen to fetch it and save $13 shipping. It's not worth the total cost of $23. I will recycle the two blue ice packets. My dog is using the styro-foam as a place mat for his food and water.The flavor is balanced but I taste MSG. It is marked "spicy" but it's mild/medium in my opinion it is NOT SPICY enough.I was motivated to buy this product by my one and only AirBnB guest who lasted 3 weeks and who happened to come from Seoul Korea via North Carolina and Chicago. He was Americanized having been in America 26 years but he pointed out that my old Kim Chi was too old to eat. So I went looking in the local market (none of those many you listed) and found a mild version of it, which was too mild.Yesterday, I bought a cabbage, cost roughly $2. I have the other ingredients which will be: sea salt, clean water, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, unbleached sugar, fish sauce, very hot red pepper (Mexico and/or Thailand), fresh scallion from my yard and horseradish paste (Japanese, green stuff), enough Bragg's apple cider vinegar to cover the cabbage, several shakes 3 crabs fish sauce. I have time and had most of the ingredients already. I also have a large German style kraut vat which is in the garden with mud in it and can be put back into service as a Kim Chi vat.I learned that I like the Korean Kim Chi better than its bland German imitation. I learned that a bowl of Kim Chi by itself is satisfying and aids digestion. I also learned that eating it on a very hot day helps cool me off and helps my body keep the temperature low.The main reason I bought this (and will not buy again due to high shipping cost) is to know what the "real" Korean food taste like. So, now I know. The way I see it, my childhood of West-East-West (California-Hawaii-Israel-California-Washington-Oregon) have taught me that our future eating, spirituality and lifestyles are very likely to incorporate the best of the East into the lifestyle of the West. This is a good start.Follow up: I made my own (see photos below) and used left-over sauce plus instructions from internet google search. I ate 1/2 so far. It's great and firey hot. The cost once the brine is prepared is only the cost of one head of cabbage, about two dollars for organic red cabbage. The cost of the brine was the ingredients listed above. I had what I thought was a small amount of Japanese green hot mustard/horseradish (like that served with sushi). I combined that with five hot Mexican dried chilis. So it's quite hot and that's fine, the best part is most of the brine is still left over. I did not refrigerate it, it picked in the sun, and I intended to eat it as a raw fresh food. I will stick this jar in the fridge now to keep the brine until I go to market for another cabbage.