Kimchi Gazpacho with Shrimp

“Everything exquisitely delicious is on the verge of putrefaction.” I’m not sure who immortalized this aphorism, but it’s the first thing I think of when anyone mentions fermentation. It is like a purgatorial stage for food—it’s a breaking-down process, but it’s also a form of preservation. Fermentation keeps an ingredient in limbo—somewhere between partially decomposed and rotten. Indeed, many of the things we love the most are fermented—wine, chocolate, pickles.

Kimchi, a pickled