If you like pickled and fermented things, banchan is half the fun of dining. I am always amused by the kimchi pots half-buried in almost every back yard. I heard a story where Generalissimo Park personally implored President Johnson to help get kimchi to the Korean GIs in Vietnam, because they were demoralized without it. What rubbish, I thought. Then I returned stateside and discovered I indeed missed it, even after only five weeks. Meals were missing that spicy sour crunch. I can only imagine what the withdrawal, so to speak, having grown up with the stuff.