Find the flavours of North Korea in Dubai

A trip to the restaurant is a window into North Korea itself.

Around the globe, Dubai is well known as a diverse melting pot of nationalities, with people from more than 200 countries calling the emirate home. Despite that fact, the last thing you'd expect to find here are North Koreans, citizens of one of the most isolated, tightly controlled and vilified regimes on earth.
But here they are, tucked away in a hidden little corner of Deira, just metres from the Deira Clocktower, at the Pyongyang Okryu-Gwan restaurant, which opened in 2010. 
A trip to the restaurant is a window into North Korea itself. The exterior is nondescript and Spartan, with the red, white and blue colours of the North Korean flag flying proudly over photographs of some of its more popular dishes. There is a sign promising a "pleasant and cooling space with more comfort" inside, along with private rooms available for those seeking solitude, or Karaoke with their friends, as they dine. 
Once inside the rather small restaurant, visitors are immediately greeted by the friendly and polite female staff - all of who are from North Korea. The walls are adorned with intricate - and beautiful - images of the rough crags and peaks of North Korea's mountainous terrain, as well as tigers and other images one might associate with Asia's so-called "Hermit Kingdom".
Notably absent: A photograph of the country's 'Supreme Leader', Kim Jong Un. The staff, it should be noted, don't speak particularly good English, and are reluctant to answer questions about life in North Korea and their relationship to their homeland.
To make matters more interesting, often times the restaurant plays an endless loop of North Korean scenery on a large flat-screen TV tucked in a corner, ranging from gushing waterfalls and idyllic looking mist-covered mountain peaks to verdant and lush agricultural areas. 
Most of my own visits to the restaurant have been quiet affairs, with few other patrons to keep me company. Pyongyang Okryu-Gwan, however, comes alive on Friday nights at 8pm, when the staff come together for a lively - and impeccably choreographed - song and dance routine, which brings to mind TV images of North Korea's "Mass Games", in which 10,000 or more gymnasts and performers celebrate May Day with an impressive display of coordination.
The show, which involves multiple wardrobe changes, traditional Korean music and colourful lights and fans, is made all the more interesting by the restaurant's dedicated patrons - most of them Koreans themselves - who sing and dance along, seemingly enjoying the time of their lives. 

A global franchise?

Although the restaurant may seem like an oddity, it is just one of many Pyongyang franchises around the globe, with locations as far afield as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. There was even - briefly - a Pyongyang in Amsterdam before a spat between the North Korean staff and Dutch owner forced its closure in 2012. The main restaurant is, of course, located in the North Korean capital. The 5,000 square-metre facility there has been described by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as a "public catering base popular among the people" which specialises in local fare which will "make the people's mouth water".
According to the Daily NK, a news outlet which specialises in North Korean affairs, the restaurant also serves up free noodles to veterans of the Korean War to celebrate the Korean Armistice Agreement, which brought hostilities to an end in 1953 - although North and South Koreas are still officially at war.

Why Wait? 

Given the novelty factor of a North Korean restaurant in Dubai, the food may seem like an afterthought - but it shouldn't be. The restaurant has some of the best Korean street food in Dubai, with everything from noodle-based dishes to BBQ options. The price is also right, with dinner for two costing around Dh100.
More importantly, most of us - even if we could get visas - will never travel to North Korea, a country that doesn't immediately come to our mind when thinking of potential tourist destinations. 
Luckily for us, we live in a place that provides a small - but delicious and entertaining - window into the country. Why wait?
bernd@khaleejtimes.com
 

• UAE
• Dubai

Bernd Debusmann Jr.

bernd@khaleejtimes.com