After the leaders of the two Koreas had a dinner of cold noodles (naengmyeon) at their April summit, South Koreans flocked to restaurants serving the iconic dish. Attention focused on the authentic Pyongyang recipe. Dongmu Bapsang (“Comrade’s Table” or “Friend’s Table”), owned by a North Korean defector who has the very recipe used for the summit dinner, emerged as a culinary hotspot.

A great beneficiary of the inter-Korean summit on April 27, despite all its fanfare, turned out to be Pyongyang naengmyeon. The meeting was the first of its kind in 11 years. But with no major breakthrough in North Korea’s denuclearization reported, South Koreans’ interest turned to what was eaten rather than what was said.
After South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un dined on the cold noodles, long lines immediately formed at the most well-known South Korean restaurants featuring the dish, which became the top searched keyword online. In the three days after the summit, sales at Seoul restaurants specializing in Pyongyang naengmyeon exceeded that of the previous week by more than 80 percent, according to one credit card company.
Kim said a chef from Okryu-gwan, the best restaurant in the North Korean capital, prepared the naengmyeon. That turned the spotlight to Dongmu Bapsang owned by Yun Jong-cheol, a former trainee at the North Korean restaurant who defected to the South in 2000.
Food critics and a TV show about gourmet dining had already noted the small, unassuming restaurant run by Yun and his wife. Yet it was the summit that turned the restaurant into an overnight sensation, with media and word of mouth assuring diners that Dongmu Bapsang duplicates Okryu-gwan’s Pyongyang-style naengmyeon. Customers stood in line for more than an hour at lunchtime.
I met Yun at his restaurant, which stands on a side street near Hapjeong subway station, in Mapo District, Seoul, just north of the Han River. The restaurant was still bustling long after the lunch crush. “My restaurant was busy with customers before. But their number soared after the summit. Even Japanese and Philippine TV crews, as well as TV crews here, want to make reports on my restaurant,” Yun said.

Yun Jong-cheol fled North Korea in 1998 and arrived in Seoul in 2000. A former trainee at Okryu-gwan, the best restaurant in Pyongyang, he opened a North Korean-style restaurant called Dongmu Bapsang (“Comrade’s Table” or “Friend’s Table”) in Hapjeong-dong, Seoul, in 2015.

The Menu, Common to Royal
Yun tries to recreate the taste of Okryu-gwan in his menu, but he is mindful of South Koreans’ palate and makes adjustments accordingly. Little seasoning is required in recipes that he has developed.
His array of dishes offered includes everyday fare such as duck bulgogi, fermented pollack, glutinous rice sundae (Korean blood sausage), potato dumplings and corn noodles. But the menu also has elaborate dishes that appeared on the table of royals. Such delicacies must be ordered in advance. There is also a variety of North Korean-style kimchi to be relished, including Pyongyang-style white kimchi, Hamgyong Province-style bean sprout kimchi, and Ryanggang Province-style cabbage kimchi. But Pyongyang naengmyeon is undoubtedly the most popular dish at the restaurant. This should come as no surprise at all. Whenever South Koreans think about North Korean dishes, it is Pyongyang naengmyeon that instantly comes to mind.
Besides Okryu-gwan, there are three other well-known naengmyeon restaurants in Pyongyang - Chongryu-gwan, Koryo Hotel and Minjok Sikdang - but Yun matter-of-factly said Okryu-gwan has the best naengmyeon chefs. “In North Korea, all talented people are sent to Pyongyang. Okryu-gwan, a restaurant built at the regime founder Kim Il-sung’s instruction in 1961, is where the best chefs are working.”


Broth & Noodles
The broth for Yun’s naengmyeon is made with cattle bones, beef brisket, pheasant meat and chicken. And unlike other Pyongyang naengmyeon restaurants in South Korea, Yun applies a finishing touch by straining the broth through a filter made up of stones, charcoal and sand - just as Okryu-gwan does. He also boils soy sauce with onions, scallions, apples and pears. Still, Yun won’t claim that his naengmyeon is exactly the same as that served at the top Pyongyang restaurant. “It’s a pity that I can’t perfectly recreate the Okryu-gwan naengmyeon here,” Yun said. The main reason is that South Korean water used for the broth and soy sauce taste different from North Korea’s.

“Okryu-gwan has branches at Mt. Kumgang (North Korea) and in China. But their naengmyeon tastes slightly different from each other,” he said.
The composition of the noodles at Dongmu Bapsang also differs from other restaurants. At other well-known naengmyeon restaurants in Seoul, some 60 to 70 percent of the noodle is buckwheat. Yun uses a 40:40:20 ratio of buckwheat to sweet potato starch to flour. That makes his noodles less sticky.
Okryu-gwan’s buckwheat to potato starch ratio is 40:60, according to Yun. He used that ratio when he opened his restaurant toward the end of 2015. But he began to use less starch and more flour after he saw his customers cutting his noodles because of their stickiness.
“People in North Korea call all kinds of noodles ‘long-life noodles,’ because long noodles refer to a healthy long life. That’s why guests are served with naengmyeon at birthday parties or wedding receptions. I was stunned to see South Koreans eat their naengmyeon after cutting the noodles with scissors.” Yun said.

Dongmu Bapsang serves an array of food, the most popular of which is Pyongyang cold noodles (naengmyeon). Its cold noodle dish tastes quite different from other South Korean restaurants because it uses Okryu-gwan’s recipe.

“At first, I tried to explain to customers why my noodles were sticky. But unfortunately, I found some of them feeling displeased with my explanation. So, I stopped trying to persuade them. I decided instead to add more flour to the dough.”
Another departure from Okryu-gwan is the use of baking soda. Its chef adds it to dough, believing that it is good for digestion. South Koreans are health-conscious, but they don’t like noodles cooked with baking soda, Yun observed. Baking soda makes Okryu-gwan’s naengmyeon blackish brown just like kudzu starch noodles, but Dongmu Bapsang’s naengmyeon is pale gray.
Besides differences in the texture and appearance of the two restaurants’ naengmyeon, how customers enjoy the cold noodles differs. Rock singer Yoon Do-hyun had Okryu-gwan’s naengmyeon when he was in Pyongyang in early April to perform concerts. He said, “I saw waitresses pick up customers’ noodles with chopsticks themselves and sprinkle vinegar on them. This is different from the way we do it. We put vinegar directly into the broth.”
Yun isn’t fussy about how his customers wield vinegar and mustard bottles; they attack their bowls of cold noodles any way they want. He has accepted the difference between the dietary cultures of the two Koreas.
Some customers, familiar with the taste of South Korean-style Pyongyang naengmyeon, initially use words like “bland” or “insipid” to describe Dongmu Bapsang’s naengmyeon. But they quickly become regular patrons once they are accustomed to the taste. They even enjoy sipping the broth without adding any seasoning.
A native of Onsong, North Ham-gyong Province, Yun trained at Okryu-gwan thanks to his father who was a senior official in the Workers’ Party. The fact that his grandfather was a chef of Japanese dishes during the last years of the colonial era could have been a black mark on his family name. But Yun’s father was promoted to a senior party position.

Cold noodles have long been a summer favorite of South Koreans. After the leaders of the two Koreas dined on Pyongyang cold noodles at their summit on April 27, long lines formed at Dongmu Bapsang for authentic North Korean-style cold noodles.

Journey Through Kitchens
After Yun enlisted in the army, he trained as a culinary specialist at Okryu-gwan for four months and then was assigned to a mess hall for high-ranking army officers. There he stayed for over 10 years, absorbing the recipes of many regional dishes for the senior officers, who came from all corners of the country. “I have hundreds of recipes of North Korean dishes in my head,” Yun said.
After his time in the army, Yun attended Hoeryong College of Light Industry, where he acquired fermentation techniques and learned how to make fermented foods like soybean paste, soy sauce and cider. Having mastered the techniques, he later delivered culinary lectures. At times he was even ordered to cook special foods at big events in Pyongyang.
Yun fled North Korea in 1998 during the “March of Hardship” period. He ultimately arrived in South Korea in 2000 via China. While trying to settle here, he did a myriad of odd jobs, including manual labor at construction sites. His break came in 2013 at a culinary event, where he described his experience at Okryu-gwan.

His story captivated restaurateur Lee Ho-kyung of Hoya Cooks, a culinary studio in Seoul, and he helped Yun open a three-day “pop-up store.” It was an instant hit; he was convinced to open his own restaurant in 2015.
There is never a shortage of customers at Yun’s restaurant, as news of his sincerity and cooking techniques spreads through word of mouth. Many chefs also pay a visit to learn his naengmyeon recipe, and some restaurateurs have even proposed launching a franchise. The proposals are rejected immediately. Yun fears that his principle of upholding the original distinctiveness of North Korean dishes might be tainted if he accepts such offers.
“In North Korea, people say ‘it’s as if a snapping sound is heard,’ when they find the food tasty. I want to overcome such temptation and prove to my compatriots in the North that Dongmu Bapsang’s naengmyeon is no less delicious than Okryu-gwan’s, when the two Koreas are finally reunified sometime in the future,” he said.