This Korean food is boiled rice in hot chicken soup accompanied by fried mushroom, chicken and mung-bean pancake and garnished with thinly sliced fried egg, finely chopped pepper and salt mixed with sesame.

A harmonious combination of a variety of materials, the traditional Korean food is tasty, good-smelling and high in nutritive value and pharmacological effect. Recently a journalist visited a restaurant on Ryomyong Street, Taesong District, Pyongyang, which specializes in Pyongyang onban.

In an interview with the journalist Pak Yon Ok, the restaurant manager, said that the food is enjoying popularity among customers and gave the following account of its origin:

Hundreds of years ago there lived a boy called Hyong Dal, an errand boy at a government office in Pyongyang, and a girl called Ui Gyong. They were in love.

One winter day the boy was imprisoned on a false charge. Thinking that her boyfriend must shiver with cold in prison, the girl visited him with boiled rice with meat, mushroom and pancake on it. She poured boiling soup in the bowl containing the food and closed the cover.

The boy gobbled the food with much relish and then asked her what its name was. In spite of herself she answered that it was called onban in the meaning that it was warm rice. After release from the prison the boy and the girl got married and treated the guests with the food on their wedding day. Since then the residents in the area of Pyongyang used to serve their guests with the food at wedding ceremonies, out of desire that the couples would live in good harmony, following the example of kind-hearted and faithful Hyong Dal and Ui Gyong.

This is how the food came into the world. It won increasing fame in the country. The cooking materials and method changed and developed with the lapse of time and now our people use mung-bean pancake and chicken soup, and chicken and mushroom as main garnishes.

As it represents the characteristics of Koreans who are resourceful, diligent and strong in the sense of obligation and have rice and soup as staple foods and their likings and tastes, the food has gaining in popularity as one of the four typical dishes of Pyongyang.

The restaurant draws a growing number of customers.

Cook Pak Kum Ok said that what makes onban stand out is the sweet taste coming from the hot chicken soup and well-done mung-bean pancake. As the journalist ate onban with customers, he felt its peculiar taste that cannot be compared with its similar types.

The restaurant is visited by several hundred people a day. Those who have ever tasted the food come back in every season including hot mid-summer. People from the provinces never fail to visit the restaurant while staying in Pyongyang on a business trip.

The two-storey restaurant keeps the principle to serve the guests kindly and sincerely in hospitable environment.

The journalist left the restaurant in the belief that it would contribute to developing the food culture of the capital city’s citizens, enjoying popularity as ever along with the name of Pyongyang which boasts a time-honoured history and brilliant culture.

Kim Hyok