adventure: kimchi museum

On Saturday, my friend Liz and I were planning on meeting my coworkers at the pool. We got off the subway and felt some raindrops.. Not wanting to waste 5,000 won ($4) on the pool if it was going to rain, we decided to go to COEX and wander around. We were clearly dressed to go to the pool, which got us a few stares, but we went anyways.

COEX is a huge underground mall, supposedly the largest in Asia. Its also the largest shopping center in Seoul. Therefore, it is extremely overwhelming. The first time I went there, I was lost for nearly an hour searching for the Apple store. This time, we just explored and then went to the Kimchi Museum.


Yes, the Kimchi Museum. An entire museum dedicated to the national favorite food. Kimchi is a pickled dish made of vegetables (typically cabbage) and covered in spicy sauce. I personally do not like kimchi.. which is unfortunate as pretty much every meal includes it as a side dish. Despite my dislike for the food in question, I figured the museum could be a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The first room was dedicated to kimchi-inspired art. There was white crepe paper hanging from the ceiling, a few inches above my head. Not sure what the point of that was, or what someone with a higher stature than my 5 foot 5 would do, but it was interesting. The rest of the museum included figurines showing how kimchi is made, plastic models of different types of kimchi, a kimchi refrigerator exhibit, a kimchi library, and a display of the health benefits of kimchi. The last room had a guest book, asking you to "leave your messages about Kimchi." How I wished I could read Korean at that point..

This last picture just had to make it into the post.. What a happy old Korean man, healthy due to the wonderful anti-aging effects of eating kimchi all his life.