Kimchee RefrigeratorTM

My friend, who is half Korean, brought me some homemade kimchee, fermented, spicy cabbage.

"Smell it, it stinks," she coaxed. "It tastes good, and it's good for digestion."

"So it tastes good, but it stinks?" I ask. Now I am wondering, one, how does something stink and taste good, and two, is she really my friend? I have friend issues after all, and they were starting to get triggered.

"Open it!" she says excitedly.

"Okay," I say reluctantly.

Oh wait, first I have to mention the kimchee refrigerator.

"Oh yeah, the kimchee will stink up your refrigerator," she says. "My Mom has a kimchee refrigerator. When she puts eggs in the kimchee refrigerator, the eggs taste like kimchee."

"So, the kimchee refrigerator is a small fridge just for kimchee?" asks Stefan for clarification.

"No, it's big!" she says pointing to our standard size fridge, laughing.

"Oh, so is kimchee refrigerator some sort of brand?" asks Stefan.

I can see she is going to be a very expensive friend since I need to purchase a special Kimchee Refrigerator^TM to store my precious kimchee, a common side dish served with Korean meals. Although, if I don't mind all of my food tasting like kimchee, I suppose I won't need to buy the Kimchee Refrigerator^TM .

"Go ahead, smell it," she says in an urgent tone.

I open the kimchee, holding my breath, then I dive in for a big whiff.

"It smells like garlic," I say relieved since I happen to like garlic. When the wind is offshore at my house (in surfing this is good) I can smell garlic in the air.

"Let me smell," she insists implying something must be wrong.

"Yeah, it stinks," she says relieved.

"Whatever," I say sprinkling kimchee (spiced with red chilli pepper) over my rice. "It tastes good."