Kimchi is the general term given to a group of fermented vegetable foods in Korea. Kimchi has been traditionally served as a "must" at almost every meal along with cooked rice and other dishes. Kimchi is an excellent example of how vegetables like Chinese cabbages and radishes can be stored for a long time in an ordinary household, especially during the winter season when fresh vegetables are scarce.
This is how you prepare Kimchi.

Step 1) Salt Chinese cabbages and/or radishes
Step 2) Wash the salted vegetables with fresh water
Step 3) Add spices and seasonings such as red hot pepper, garlic, fish sauce and ginger. Step 4) Keep the spiced vegetables in a cool place for a few days. This process let the vegetables to undergo a process of naturally mixed lactic acid fermentation.

It is suspected that the origin of kimchi may be the Chinese pickles. The pickles were brought into Korea and were modified to form several types of Kimchi of common raw materials to suit the taste of Koreans during the Shilla (A. D. 654 -935) and Korea (A. D. 918 - 1392) dynasties. Until the Korea dynasty, the main vegetable used to make kimchi was radish. Records also show that in addition to radish, cucumber, eggplant and green onion were used to make pickled vegetables at that time. Whole-cabbage kimchi and other kimchi prepared with hot red pepper became popular after the middle of the Rhee dynasty (A. D. 1392 - 1910). Peppers were imported to Korea in the early part of the 17th century, and the first record of it being used as an ingredient of kimchi was made in 1766.

Kimchi is characterized with its palatability giving sour, sweet and carbonated taste and is very different from sauerkraut which is a popular fermented vegetable product in the West. Many different recipes were published and fermentation methods "invented" for making kimchi, and it is not surprising that the taste of each kimchi would be quite different from every other. Despite the uniqueness of every kimchi, the basic taste of kimchi is derived from salt, lactic acid fermentation of vegetables, spices (including hot red pepper, garlic, ginger and green thread onion) and pickled fish or fresh seafoods.