A Visit to Kimchi Museum – The Staple Food of South Korea

A Visit to Kimchi Museum – The Staple Food of South Korea

When I went to the Kimchi Museum, what I knew was that it is a place showcasing a Korean cuisine item. What I found out upon my visit was that Kimchi Museum is all about Kimchi, literally. Wondering what Kimchi is? Well, I was at a lost at first,  too.

Kimchi is Korea’s national dish, and is one of the most traditional pieces of Korean cuisine.

It is a super spicy and sour, usually fermented Korean side dish. This much loved and honored side dish is composed of vegetables and a range of seasonings and the fun part is its resemblance with the nature of wine, the older it gets, the better it tastes, as it preserves the nutrients that are present in fresh vegetables.

The exhibitions at Kimchi Museum, all emphasized about Kimchi’s history, its importance in the Korean cuisine and its delicious varieties. The Museum had different activities for visitors like me; I witnessed a live Kimchi making process, and tasted spicy and sour Kimchi as well.

The Kimchi Museum is a fascinating place to visit, to see how the Koreans absolutely adore and revere their national fruit. The museum was divided into three sections; each one depicted different Kimchi related information.

The first section elaborated on Kimchi’s historical importance, and on display were several books and literature related to kimchi. Have you ever heard of a food trend? Well, the museum in “In the models of Kimchi in each period” illustrates the trends of kimchi that have evolved with Korean history. Trust me, Kimchi Museum was a good one to visit, its section even delved into stories about how hot peppers began to be added to kimchi. A timeline was there even, which detailed kimchi’s history.

Kimchi Museum’s second section displayed the process of Kimchi making, and anyone who has even a little bit of interest in culinary art would love to see it.

Shorts films were being played at regular intervals, thus I didn’t get bored for a second. Also there was this area which just amazed me, it displayed up to eighty varieties of kimchi. Yes, eighty! The walls were covered with graphic illustrations; some had recipes along with description and a picture too.

The third section was like a data room, which had dated records of kimchi, old and latest books on kimchi, and also on the other traditional foods of Korea. In short, this was like a kimchi library. There were kimchi related movies and articles. As I am not much into cook-books, I didn’t spend much time in this section.

Furthermore, there was a section, where I saw the environments that were created on the day of making kimchi. This also got interesting, as there were historic pottery molds on display, that were used a long time ago, for fermentation and storage of kimchi.

The visit to this one of this kind museum would have been incomplete without pictures. I took quite a few pictures. The best part was the tasting room where I got to taste two different varieties of Kimchi. Let me know what you think of Kimchi Museum, and if you have heard of any other food museums.

If you’re interesting about going to this really cool place, here’s the official website.

Enjoy!