North Korean snacks: 'Speed cakes' and 'man-made meat'
- Published
Food scarcity was a common problem in North Korea for years, leading people to come up with innovative dishes using basic ingredients. This is seokdujeon, also known as "speed cake" - a snack that can be made within minutes without baking.
Seokdujeon is made by mixing cornmeal powder with water, as demonstrated here by Hong Eun-hye, a defector who runs a restaurant in Seoul. Corn is a staple among poorer North Koreans as it is cheaper than rice.
Injogogi, a textured vegetable protein whose name means "man-made meat", is made from the leftover dregs from soy bean oil production. The dregs are usually fed to pigs, but can also be rolled and pressed into sheets.
Injogogi can be made into injogigibab, where tubes of protein are stuffed with rice and smeared with chilli paste or a fish-based sauce. Injogogi is said to be low in calories, but high in protein and fibre.
Similar to injogogibab, dububab or "tofu rice" is a snack of tofu skins rolled into cones, stuffed with rice, and topped with chilli sauce.
These are "finger snacks", bready biscuits with a chewy centre. They are made with flour, yeast, sugar and grape glucose - when sugar is scarce, North Koreans make glucose from the fruit.
This is sundae - not ice-cream, but actually a blood sausage similar to black pudding. It is made with pig's blood mixed with vegetables and grains such as rice, and can be found in both North and South Korea.
Kongsatang means "bean candy", and is similar to popcorn. The snack, which is considered a special treat, is made from roasted soy beans which are coated with sugar.
This is alsatang which is made from sugar and vinegar, and is said to be similar to traditional sugar plums. Both kongsatang and alsatang are given out to children on special occasions in North Korea, like the birth anniversary of founder Kim Il Sung.
- Published22 March 2017
