(Jangdokdae- A terrace where Koreans used to store pickled or fermented food like Gochujang or soy sauce/ The pots are called hangari)
After enjoying rice cakes and tea at Jilsiru, we decided to visit the rice cake and traditional kitchen utensils museum that are located in a same building. After paying the entrance fee (6,000 won (US $ 6.30) for 2, I thought it was pretty expensive from the beginning), we went up to the second floor where the rice cake museum was. It wasn’t very crowded. There were a couple of families and some kids doing their winter vacation homework. Then I saw a “Do not take pictures” sign. *big disappointed sigh* The exhibition room was a lot smaller than I expected. There were some collections of some rice cakes and traditional equipment that are used for making rice cakes. I have seen most of those as I grew up in text books or TV or even in my house.
(Below – two pictures taken in the rice cake museum at the end of our visit to Jilsiru.)
(Ddeoksal – Rice cake pattens)
After staying in that floor about 5 minutes with disappointment, we went up to the third floor where the traditional kitchen utensil museum was. The very first display you will see is this.
(5 cheop bansang (5 side dish meal) : Rice, soup, stew, soy sauce and 5 other side dishes, Kimchi doesn’t count as a side dish) Do you think it is a lot of side dishes? Yet King and noble people had 12 side dish meal. Crikey!
Surprisingly there was no sign of “Do not take pictures”. So I grabbed the chance, then I just gave it a quick look and we left. I stopped at the second floor and took some sneaky pictures in a section where there was no “Do not take pictures sign”. 
(Left part of picture – rice cake making tools such as measuring cups and rice flour mill)
If you haven’t seen any of those before in your life, you might find them interesting. Yet there were no explanation about the tools, so you wouldn’t have any clue. I think they should reduce the entrance fee for the quality of the museum.
- Address : 164-2, Waryong-dong, Jongno-Gu, Seoul
- Open : Monday- Saturday 10:00~17:00, Sunday 12:00~17:00
- Traffic info – (Subway) line 1, 3, 5 Jongno 3 ga station Exit No.7
- Entrance fee : 3,000 won for an individual adult, 2,000 won for a student (adult fee applies to uni students) / 2,000 won each for adults in a group, 1,000 won each for students in a group (group means more than 20 people)
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Ddeok (Korean Rice Cake) Cafe – Jilsiru
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The rice cake moulds look pretty and interesting. I bought some moulds in Singapore to make some local pastry too. Now I just have to look for the appropriate recipes.
i do like rice cakes. it’s probably similar to ours (Indonesians). love reading this culture side of Korean culinary world.
Sounds like an interesting musuem to visit !
One thing I love about Korean food is the side dishes…little things of goodies. I always OD on those before the main entree comes…LOL. Funny it was “showcased” in the musuem…must be plastic ones, correct?
Hey Sue–
Just checking in to let you know I made your recipe for honghap jjim yesterday for my husband’s birthday. He’s a big seafood lover and I decided to make your recipe along with the standard birthday miyuk gook. I also bought some crab so he was in seafood heaven! He loved the mussels and I just wanted to say a big THANKS! Hope you’re doing well!!!
Sue, thanks for the post. It’s always good to learn more about Korean history. We saw a collection of hangari when we visited Namsangol Hanok Village back in Nov 2004. I enjoyed your Jilsiru post too.
You’ve inspired me to visit the Japanese confection museum in Kyoto.
I saw the hangari (pots) in the Dae Jang Gum series.