(Jangdokdae, 장독대- A terrace where Koreans used to store pickled or fermented food like gochujang or soy sauce/ The pots are called hangari, 항아리)
After enjoying my rice cakes and tea at Jilsiru, we decided to visit the Tteok and Kitchen Utensil Museum (떡 박물관) that is located in the same building (Tteok means “rice cake”).
After paying the entrance fee (6,000 won (US $ 6.30) for 2, which I thought was a bit expensive), we went up to the second floor where the Tteok 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 display rice cakes and traditional equipment/tools that are used for making Korean rice cakes. I have seen most of those as I grew up in text books or TV or even in my house.
(Tteoksal,떡살 – Rice cake mould)
After staying in that floor about 5 minutes with a bit of disappointment (there wasn’t much to see in my opinion), we went up to the third floor where the traditional kitchen utensil museum was. The very first display I saw was this.
(5 dish table, 5 cheop bansang/ 5첩 반상 : 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 the King and noble people had 12 side dish meals!
Surprisingly there was no sign saying “Do not take pictures”, so I gladly grabbed the chance.
(Rice cake making tools such as measuring cups and rice flour mill and rice cake model display)
If you haven’t seen any of those before in your life, you might find them interesting.
- Address : 164-2, Waryong-dong, Jongno-Gu, Seoul
- Open : Monday- Sunday 10:00~18:00
- Traffic info – (Subway) line 1, 3, 5 Jongno 3 ga station, Exit gate no.7, 5 mins by walk
- 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)
Update (April 21, 2016): If you’re interested in participating in making some Korean rice cakes, Kimchi or other Korean traditional food, you should check out their experience program. I read very good reviews about it.
we just came back from the museum. the cost was 2000 won and we took a lot of pictures. they also must have changed because there was a translation on almost everything. we enjoyed it and the free iced barley tea downstairs was a welcome item from the 97 degree summer afternoon. once is enough though.
Hi Seoulsearcher
Thanks for the update. It’s good to hear that they finally have more information available. 🙂
Cheers
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. 🙂