Nestled in the heart of Insa-dong, Kimchikan offers Koreans and tourists alike a deep dive into the world of Korea‘s most famous food.

The museum is run by food company Pulmuone, which makes and sells kimchi. It has been operating since 1986, but has been at its current location since just 2015.

When it moved from its previous location at Coex to Insa-dong, the museum received a major face-lift. Instead of the traditional museum style of showing kimchi-related artifacts behind glass, Kimchikan makes use of digital technology to feature touch screens and audio guides that allow visitors to explore the history of the dish and to virtually make kimchi themselves.

For visitors who want the real experience, Kimchikan offers hands-on classes of making kimchi. The classes are offered to groups of five or more foreign visitors or children, and alternate between spicy kimchi and white kimchi.

On Wednesday, 21 students from the Ganada Korean Language Institute took part in a class to make spicy kimchi.

Carefully watching the instructor’s hands on a big screen, the participants mixed the seasoning into sliced radish and rubbed it into prepared cabbage.

“It‘s better than the kimchi we have at our guest house,” one participant said as she tasted the seasoning.

Since its move to Insa-dong, Kimchikan has hosted about 11,400 people in its hands-on classes. Group classes are often reserved by Korean language schools as well as foreign companies, organizations that do international work, including trade and aid, and travel agencies.

Kimchikan is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with docent tours available four times a day for groups of 10 or more. Admission ranges from 1,000 won to 5,000 won depending on age. Kimchi-making classes are available by reservation every Wednesday and Thursday, and cost 25,000 won per person. 

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo
Written by Won Ho-jung