Kimchi Museum Tours and Activities

Kimchi is Korea’s national dish, and so much a part of its culture and history that they have dedicated an entire museum to it! Opened in 1986, the Pulmuone Kimchi Museum attracts over 100,000 visitors a year. A staple of the Korean diet for centuries, kimchi is a side-dish of fermented vegetables. Eaten daily by locals throughout the country, there are countless ways to cook and serve kimchi.

The museum will guide you through the history of kimchi, with historic books, cooking utensils and paintings used to showcase the origins of the dish. Kimchi is eaten throughout Korea in one form or another, and the museum explains the different ingredients and regional variations in detail.

The museum guides you through the process of preparing kimchi, and offers a number of different recipes you can copy down and try out at home. The museum offers regular cooking classes for a set fee if you’re interested in more hands-on learning. It’s worth ringing ahead to reserve your place on the course.

Kimchi is well known for its health benefits, which you can observe for yourself by studying the dish under a microscope, learning about its unique digestive properties. Don’t miss the tasting rooms at the end of the museum, where you can indulge in regional variations of the national dish. An informative data room goes into more detail about Korean cuisine in general, and you can pick up kimchi-related souvenirs in the gift shop.

The Pulmuone Kimchi Museum is open every day except Mondays and public holidays, and charges a small entrance fee. Take the subway to Samseong or Cheongdam. The museum is relatively small, so an hour should be enough to see everything it has to offer.