North Korea Food Guide

Korea has a number of regional cuisines, but nearly all share two things in common: rice, and hot, peppery flavours. Through most of the country, a wide range of vegetables is consumed, along with meat, fish or poultry, all seasoned with a variety of herbs and spices- the more commonly used flavourings include onions, ginger, garlic, soyabean sauce, sesame oil and red pepper- flavourings which make the food much more boisterous than that of neighbouring countries like Russia or Japan.

Perhaps the best- known dishes of Korea include pulgogi, marinated beef flavoured with soya sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, spring onions and other ingredients, and roasted over a brazier; kimchi - a spicy pickle of cabbage, turnips, cucumber, salt, garlic, onions and other seasonings, and hangwa -the generic name for Korean sweets- and there’s a wide range of them! Meals traditionally consist of soup, rice and side dishes of meats (or fish or poultry), along with vegetables, including the inevitable kimchi.

A point to be noted: in the recent past, North Korea has faced tremendous food shortages, and despite foreign aid, there is still a scarcity of food in the country.