A birthday party is in full swing with the rainbow-colored tteok, Korea’s rice cake, at the center of the celebration. Although the ddeok cake lacks elaborate decorations or sweet icing, the rainbow tteok just as festive and colorful as conventional birthday cakes. In fact, Koreans have long celebrated birthdays or holidays with the beautiful rainbow ddeok.

The rainbow ddeok used to be a staple for babies’ first birthday or first 100-day parties. Do you know why? That is to wish children to have beautiful dreams and only good things happen in their lives. The rainbow ddeok is also great for the birthday parties of older people. Don’t just give them any old ddeok, but this colorful and pretty ddeok for the joyous occasion.

What is a party without sharing the delicious rice concoction? Take a bite out of a steamy block of rainbow tteok and enjoy its sweet flavor.

- Wow, it’s so yummy. It really is.
- The cinnamon in it is really delicious. It’s so pretty and tasty. It’s been steamed to perfection. It’s warm, tender, colorful and just plain good. Here, try it.
- It’s so soft and not cloyingly sweet as the cakes sold at some bakeries. The five colors of the rainbow tteok were created by using five natural and healthful ingredients. It would be better for my children if I made this ddeok for them. I can keep the tteok in the freezer and steam it before serving. It will bring me closer to my children.

Today’s trip takes us to a place where we can satiate our cravings for tteok and learn about this traditional Korean snack. With Chuseok only a few days away, our excursion to the Tteok Museum and Tteok Café in central Seoul seems all the more appropriate.

The Tteok Museum is situated near Changdeok Palace, a short distance away from No.7 exit of Jongno 3 station of subway lines 1, 3, and 5. You will see the three-story Institute of Traditional Korean Food building and that’s where you can find the Tteok Museum and Tteok Café where you can learn all about the wide variety of Korean rice cake. Here’s Director Sook-ja Yoon of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food to tell us more.

There are a wide variety of Korean tteok at the Tteok Café. There are also some 20 different kinds of tea and coffee. The Tteok Museum is on the second and third floor. People usually tour the museum first and enjoy tteok treats at the café on the first floor. They can feel Korea’s new culture this way.

The tteok café on the first floor is named Jilsiru. The comfortable café offers some 60 kinds of ddeok and Korean traditional cookies, as well as about 30 traditional beverages. Jilsiru is known for its seasonal tteok offerings. Koreans have made ddeok using ingredients available at that time of the year, so Jilsiru’s tteok menu also changes from season to season. The café also has an array of fusion tteok and beverages to suit the tastes of the younger generation. Café manager Kim So-jung explains more about the menu.

We offer different tteok for each season. There are, of course, our staple tteok fares in addition to three or four seasonal tteok. Right now we have tteok made with surichui, a kind of marsh plant, and ramie plant leaves. We’re also preparing songpyeon or half-moon rice cake for upcoming Chuseok. Our more modernized versions of tteok include those with kimchi or tteok sandwiches. Koreans have traditionally made big batches of tteok, but we make ours in small-sized portions, so it’s easier to eat and cuter to look at. The café also has a shake made out of frozen persimmon. We also use sweet pumpkin not to make porridge, but pumpkin latte to appeal to foreign customers.

Jilsiru Café is filled with an array of colorful and pretty tteok. They look almost too good to eat. The café sees many regulars who have taken likings to the wide selection of tteok and modernized versions of traditional beverages.

- I like ojaengi tteok, which has a red bean filling and pine nuts inside the chewy mugwort tteok. It’s really delicious and shaped like an old straw hat.
- The atmosphere here is traditional. They have delicious tteok and traditional teas. But my favorite is the frozen persimmon shake. I like it because it retains the natural flavor of sweet persimmon. That’s what makes me come here so often.

It’s really hard to resist the temptation of delectable tteok. It’s no surprise that customers and even foreigners don’t hesitate to order just about everything on the menu.

While cakes are known for their sweetness and soft texture, tteok is less sweet and more filling. There can be many different varieties of tteok with rice as the main ingredient and various fillings. Director Sook-ja Yoon of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food tells us more.

Unlike western cakes or breads, the main ingredient of tteok is rice. But there are also other additional ingredients like beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and even flowers.

Here comes the scrumptious-looking tteok! A group of Japanese tourists exclaim how delicious it is as soon as they take a bite of tteok.

- I heard that there were very unique tteok in Korea and came to see them myself. I came to try tteok with kimchi and mugwort, because I think those tteok kinds must be good for my health. Japanese rice cakes are usually very sweet, but Korean tteok is not that sweet and looks really pretty, making it even more delicious.

In the Tteok Museum on the second floor there are roughly 100 different kinds of tteok traditionally made in Korea. The displays include tteokguk or tteok soup eaten to celebrate the New Year’s Day, the azalea rice pancake made to welcome the spring season, and songpyeon, a staple tteok to give thanks for a bountiful harvest on Chuseok. In addition to the selection of traditional tteok, the museum also exhibits a range of tteok-making tools, such as the tteok mold used to press patterns onto the dough, a flat wooden board and a large wooden mallet for kneading and pounding the sticky tteok dough, and a large mortar and a millstone used in grinding grains.

One of the most popular exhibits is the recreation of a traditional Korean kitchen. Here’s Tteok Museum research fellow Bae Eun-seok to explain more about the displays.

Our museum has recreated a traditional Korean kitchen. You can see an old iron vat where housewives used to cook rice, an old kitchen table, and the traditional Korean kitchen sink. It’s a very special space, a place with nostalgia. The museum doesn’t have any precious relics like national treasures, but the things shown here were all passed down from our grandmothers and ancestors. Everything that has disappeared from our lives because of the changes in the times or our lifestyle is very precious to the museum. Once, a group of old ladies with Alzheimer’s came to our museum. When they saw our displays, they began to smile and talk comfortably about the old days, and some even said that they wanted to stay longer and see more of the museum. That’s when I realized that what we have here in the museum are parts of their lives.

In the exhibition rooms on the third floor, visitors can see the dishes and tteok used in ancient rituals. Traditional spreads for important rites, such as the first birthday celebration, wedding, and ancestral memorial service, have been showcased for visitors. Here’s Tteok Museum research fellow Bae Eun-seok again.

The exhibits start with a wedding banquet, and moves on to a baby’s first birthday, the first time a child finishes studying a book, a person’s 60th birthday, a funereal meal, and a memorial service.

A tour of the Tteok Museum helps visitors better understand Korea’s traditional cuisine. Korean visitors would probably reminisce about the tteok their mothers used to make when they were little. But in all likelihood they would leave the museum hungry after seeing more than 100 varieties of tteok on display.

- I didn’t realize there were so many different kinds of tteok. I was really surprised. I think tteok is a great item to go global. It’s healthy and looks appetizing. I’ve seen the millstones and mortars, how they make tteok by steaming, and even how they made kimchi. Seeing the displays made me very nostalgic. My mother used to make great tteok. I can’t help thinking about my mom.
- I wanted to try out all these different tteok. I was curious about their flavors. Only natural colorings are used nowadays and tteok pieces are small bite-sized to make it less messy to eat. So I think foreigners would like it, too.

If just looking at the tteok leaves you unsatisfied, why don’t you try your hand at making your own tteok? Those wishing to take part in the make-your-own-tteok program can apply through the museum’s internet homepage or by phone. The program is provided in English, Chinese, and Japanese, in addition to Korean. Here’s Ms. Kim Yu-ri in charge of the program.

People can make two types of seasonal tteok at the hands-on program. Just pay 35 thousand won for registration and you can make your own tteok and take your creation home, too. The traditional tteok recipes taught in the class are for steamed tteok, pumpkin tteok, and flower tteok. The fusion tteok menus include cone-shaped tteok, pouch-shaped tteok, and tteok sandwich.

The rainbow tteok is so named, because it resembles the rainbow with various colors. An indispensable part of a festive occasion, the secret to making a good rainbow tteok is to bring out the full, vivid colors of the yellow, pink, light green, and brown layers. Different kinds of natural powder derived from plants are mixed well with white rice powder and just the right portion of water is added to make the dough. But for many of the students in the program, it’s easier said than done.

Look at how I’m making the color pink. Use your hand to thoroughly mix the rice powder and the strawberry powder. When you are done, add water. If you don’t add enough water, the tteok will turn out too hard, so use enough water. Also sift the powder mixture two or three times to make the tteok softer and more delicious. Look how pretty the color is.

With their rainbow tteok cooking away in the steamer, students wait anxiously for their creations. After a long wait, they finally open the steamer and are hit with the sweet aroma of perfectly steamed five-color rainbow tteok.

A man who took part in today’s tteok-making program says that he’s going to make the rainbow tteok for his pregnant wife.

- My wife is pregnant and she’s having a hard time. So I came here to learn how to make the rainbow tteok, so that I can make it for her at home and make her happy.

Tteok has been an important part of Korean people’s festivities and rituals. It’s hard to think of Korean cuisine without this tasty treat. A visit to the Tteok Musem and Jilsiru Café is certain to help you better understand Korea’s food culture and heritage.