Asia Sentinel

Photo by avlxyz (flickr.com/photos/avlxyz)

Can a solid North Korean restaurant, formerly within sprinting distance of the communist country's embassy in Beijing, make it in the bright lights and skyscrapers of the city's flashy commercial center?

Until recently, the Silver Bank Pyongyang Restaurant was the place to go for a fusty, Cold War culinary experience. With a menu alternating between delicacies like abalone, and homespun favorites like hand-ground porridge, located in a wood-paneled, metal-tabled dining hall and served by smiling North Korean waitresses, it had all the charm of the pleasantly incongruous. But last month, the restaurant decided to move a few kilometers to the southeast to the Central Business District, and it is now perched on the second floor of a building called the China Garments Mansion. "We're going for a more high-class experience," said the restaurant's Chinese translator.

But while the service staff is the same and the food equally fantastic, though pricier, some of the charm got lost in the shift. The new Silver Bank has no main dining hall. Rather, the entire restaurant consists entirely of 20 private rooms, some seating as many as 40 people. But without a central space, sightings of North Korean diplomats cautiously picking at their noodles are rarer. The new private rooms feel silent and eerie, no matter how loudly we talk. The leather chairs seem like the type often found in pricey Beijing developments named after European capital cities. Like the old restaurant, a karaoke screen saver played silently on the TV panel in the wall, cycling through images of Korea: grand arches, surging waterfalls, pristine forests. A painting in a golden frame dominated an entire side of one wall. In it, giant crags, lapped by waves, rose majestically out of the ocean. It was an impressive painting, one that reminded me of the 18th century American flag, featuring a coiled rattlesnake, ready to strike, with the words: "DONT TREAD ON ME" (sic), but it scared me.

The old Silver Bank had a particular fondness for a simpler version of the rural. One table consisted entirely of a tree trunk. The old restaurant's facade had the incongruous atmosphere of a wooden hut dug into the side of a mountain. The upstairs featured ornamental wooden shutters that unfortunately opened onto a brick wall. And visitors could enjoy a before-dinner stroll around the tree-lined embassy and look at pictures of Kim Jong Il inspecting a factory that produces chickens. The exquisite food only seemed to complement these little traces of absurdity.

The grilled duck struck the perfect balance of fatty and tender, and rolled in lettuce and garnished with a slice of garlic it hit the right mixture of crispy, oily, and pungent. Each ingredient, from the stone pot rice to the stir-fried Korean mushrooms, was fresh.

Meat and seafood featured heavily, partly because seafood offers a healthy markup (lobster and clam dishes cost hundreds of yuan), and partly because meat is a delicacy in North Korea. On my trip to the country, we were told that North Koreans couldn't understand vegetarians, "because why would people give up the most expensive luxury that they, as Koreans, could afford?"

As in other desperately poor countries, the elite eat well while the poor subsist. The most common response I receive when I invite people to dine with me at Silver Bank is "They have food in North Korea?" And I say yes, because if they didn't have food they'd all be dead, though some had, of course, succumbed to that very problem.

Comments (3)

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Potluck
written by Mao, February 20, 2009

It is an excellent idea. Great hospitality and go and enjoy your meal there.

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Great
written by Rapidshare SE, February 21, 2010

Well, it seems to me they have nice strategy. I believe the manager of this restaurant is very important. But of course it is also important that the food is tasty.

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Very nice article.
written by rapidshare, August 11, 2010

Very nice article. This will be useful for everyone.

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