North Korean Food

When we visited South Korea last summer, Jong Hoon took us to a restaurant in a trendy area of Seoul, renowned for serving typical food of neighbouring North Korea. 

The venue was decorated with some old maps and watercolour paintings and there was an area where you could sit at a table using ‘normal’ chairs and another area where you could try the traditional way, sitting on cushions around a very low table.

a humble bowl of rice

sitting at a traditional low table

Manners and protocol are very important in Korean tradition, each person has an assigned place at the table. But I think JH was very kind to us and he spared the protocol, so we could eat in a manner that we were more comfortable, particularly the younger ones (although I must admit their chopstick skills are far better than mine!) The waitress brought in the food, which was delicious. First she served small dishes with different types of kimchee. Then the bulgogi appeared, a hot-pot type of dish, with grilled beef that is then wrapped in lettuce leaves. She kept coming back with a big kettle to pour stock (or broth) into the bulgogi pot.

Menu

Bae Chu Kimchi – cabbage kimchee - 배추김치

Do Rah Ji (it is a vegetable, it is not a fish!) - 도라지

Ah mook Jo Rim - fried fish cake - 어묵조림

Moo Moo Chim - radish kimchee - 무 무침

Dong Chi Mi - radish water kimchee - 동치미 –

Bulgogi – beef with soy sauce  - 불고기

Kimchee Man Doo Jeon Gol  - Kimchee dumpling stew - 김치만두전골 –  

How to make (according to Jong Hoon)

Bulgogi: boil soya sauce for a couple of hours with vegetables, garlic and pepper ; cool down and marinate the beef for 3 to four hours, then serve as hot pot. Use beef stock for replenishing the hot-pot

bulgogi grilling/stewing away in the hot pot 

Kimchee Man Doo Jeon Gol: there is kimchee inside the dumpling, with meatballs and rice cakes

kimchee man doo jeon gol

my bowl of kimchee man doo jeon gol

kimchee cabbage

lettuce and bean paste to wrap the bugolgi grilled beef

kimchee vegetable (at first, I thought it was fish!)

kimchee white radish

more kimchee

beautiful bowl of rice

Later on, I found out that Koreans don’t serve their own drinks, but they pour each other drinks as a sign of politeness. The eldest eats first and nobody can touch their chopsticks before the eldest.

It was a lovely evening! After the restaurant we went for a walk around the area to admire the beautiful traditional Korean wooden houses.

If you want to read more about our trip to South Korea, check out this blog post about 'People Watching in Bussan Beach' (here)