Fermented vegetables are delicious — on this point, many people from China and South Korea can agree. But for some social media users in the two countries, the culinary goodwill ends there.
A spat is raging this week over a Chinese state tabloid’s claim that China had "led” the development of an international standard for paocai, or pickled vegetables. In South Korea, the claim was seen as misleading because in the Chinese language, paocai also refers to kimchi — the fermented cabbage dish that plays an integral role in Korean cuisine.
It wasn’t clear whether the ambiguity was unintentional or an example of the trolling for which the tabloid, Global Times, is famous. But it prompted ripostes from South Korean officials and newspapers, along with a slew of barbed social media comments about the finer points of pickled cabbage.