Daedongkang

While dining upon caviar and unicorn tears aboard the Daegu Pockets yacht it had seemed like a hilarious caper to jaunt off to see how the other half live. A North Korean restaurant, you say? How frightfully absurd!

Suffice to say, once the gold-leaf brandy had worn off and we were wandering the desolate streets around Bongdeok Market to find Daedongkang restaurant, our moods had turned. The uninspiring venue, nestled down an inconspicuous alley, did little to dispel our fears. A bland white sign, a rickety door and two dirty windows greeted us. We crossed ourselves, and marched in.

As we were being seated (an uproarious soju party in the main room forced us into the slightly dingier one) the chef, Seok Inseop, told us that his refugee parents had opened the restaurant in 1965 for North Korean immigrants: “who come for a taste of their home-towns”.

Asking our animated chef for the specialties of the house turned into quite the history lesson/rambling story, depending on your opinion. He recommended Omok jaeng ban (King’s deli plate) - created, so the tale goes, to satisfy the gastronomic demands of a vain King. Servants! He bellowed one day, I demand meat that will make me slender!

And so was born this rich concoction of beef, mushrooms and vegetables, which they served, slyly, in a dish resembling their fat King’s belly.

Unfortunately, the restaurant was loyal to the belly’s enormous size, and as our party was small and 33.3% vegetarian, we had to forgo it. We turned instead to house specialty two: naeng myeon - considered a Northern specialty, apparently, because buckwheat is so hardy, making it perfect for their harsh winters.

Inseop had rustled up a great version - attractive to palate and eyes – a simple, clean affair accompanied by thinly sliced cucumber and good quality beef. Our group’s herbivore, manfully ignoring the seared cow floating above the noodles, was most impressed. Lucky, really, because this was as vegetarian as this slice of North Korea got.

Next up we tried onban soup - more distinctively North Korean, and not to the taste of our South Korean companion. It lacked the spicy, salty kick of a Southern dish, and was a little bland – even reminding me of soup from good ol’ blighty. It had a strong chicken flavor, but little else, and the vast quantity of skin used was a turn-off. Towards the end it was only our vegetarian who continued to brave the intensely meaty soup. We all agreed the highlight was the mung-bean patty floating on top: a new experience for this humble traveler.

For our third dish Inseop excelled himself with possibly the most delicious mandu I’ve ever tasted. It was my first time sampling the North Korean variety (they’re bigger!), however these particular mandu were also far more flavorsome than the bargain offerings to which I’ve become accustomed. With the vegetarian stuffed on chicken and beef she remembered her morals and allowed the carnivores to finish the juicy pork-stuffed dumplings in peace, while she continued to toy with the exceptional sides; kimchi, onions and spiced beans for flavor, radish, cucumber and cold cabbage soup to refresh over-stimulated taste-buds. The three meals and sides totaled 18,000won.

As we were thanking Inseop for his fine hospitality and almost equally fine food, he remarked on how nice it was to see us here because: “Southerners have no appreciation of the North’s culture or food – they only know about the bombs and famine.”

Published by Daegu Pockets December 2010 

http://www.daegupockets.com/pdfs/Dec2010.pdf (pages 16-17)