The purpose of this study was to investigate American's perception and preference for Korean kimchi. A questionnaire was used to examine the perceptions of 126 males (40.4%) and 186 females (59.6%) residing in Illinois and California. Approximately 68% of the respondents had eaten Korean food. The perception of kimchi was the highest with a mean of 3.62. The respondents felt that the "Kimchi is a good side dish with cooked rice", "Kimchi (with garlic) prevents SARS", which was significantly different (M=3.06, p< .001), and "Kimchi prevents adult diseases" (M=3.24, p< .01). When evaluating the different kinds of kimchi, onion juice kimchi had the most preferred taste and also the highest overall acceptability (M=5.50, p< .05) of the second days. In the sensory evaluation by kimchi use, the best taste (p< .001) was in the order of kimchi pizza (M=6.58), kimchi dumplings (M=6.40), and kimchi chicken a'laking (M=6.33). The order for overall acceptability (p< .001) was kimchi dumplings (M=6.30), kimchi pizza (M=6.25), kimchi bacon roll, kimchi fried rice, and kimchi chicken a'laking (M=6.17).