Inter-Korean summit dinner to serve menu symbolizing detente and harmony

SEOUL -- The menu for a summit dinner, arranged by the two Koreas, fascinates many gourmets but each dish was cautiously designed to have historical and symbolic meanings of detente and harmony.

The summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place on Friday in the truce village of Panmunjom in the middle of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which splits the Korean peninsula.

The two Koreas have carefully selected dishes for the dinner with ingredients that would symbolize efforts by those who devoted themselves to peace and unification, according to the South's presidential Blue House.

At the request of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korea agreed to dispatch a top chef from Okryu-gwan, the North's most famous traditional restaurant in Pyongyang, to serve traditional handmade cold noodles called "Naengmyeon".

Traditionally, long noodles symbolized longevity of life and good health and Naengmyeon is a Korean dish of long and thin handmade noodles made from the flour and starch of various ingredients, including buckwheat, served in cold beef broth.

Originally, Naengmyeon was a delicacy in the northern part of the peninsula and it became popular in South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War. Many South Koreans dream of visiting Pyongyang to taste the original cold buckwheat noodle soup at Okryu-gwan.

Other dishes will also include symbolic ingredients. Cooked rice was harvested from Bongha, the home village of South Korea's late president Roh Moo-hyun, who held a summit with Kim Jong-il, the father of Kim Jong-un, in 2007.

A cold dumpling soup will be made from croaker and sea cucumber caught at the sea around Gageo Island, the hometown of the South's late president Kim Dae-jung, the Nobel peace prize winner who opened an era of inter-Korean reconciliation after a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000.

Charcoal roasted beef will be prepared using a breed of native Korean cattle, bred and grown at a farm in Seosan, about 100 kilometers southwest of Seoul. The farm became famous because Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung sent 1001 "unification" cows in 1998.

Yun I-sang, a Korean-born contemporary music composer, will be commemorated with a cold octopus salad dish, similar to that of an Italian octopus carpaccio. The octopus used in the dish will come from Yun's hometown in the southern port city of Tongyeong.

Yun, who stayed in West Berlin, once visited Pyongyang to refill his musical inspiration. He was kidnapped by a South Korean intelligence agent from West Germany to Seoul in 1967, tortured and sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 1969 after a worldwide petition and lived the rest of his life in Germany. To commemorate Yun's passion for music, an annual arts festival has been held in Pyongyang since 1982.

Two dishes were added to the menu so that Moon and Kim can develop a bond of sympathy. Roasted John Dory, also known as St Pierre or Peter's Fish, will be served because it is popular at Moon's hometown in the southern port city of Busan. Rosti, an iconic Swiss cuisine, will be prepared for Kim who spent his school years in Switzerland. Rosti is a potato pancake dish garnished with sauteed mushrooms.

Steamed catfish, red sea-bream and salad made from herbs gathered in the DMZ will be served to illustrate memory of the past and hopes for the future. The dessert dish will symbolize unification. A mango mousse dessert, decorated with a map showing the unified Korean peninsula, will be encased in a shell made from Swiss chocolate.
Park Sae-jin Reporter swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

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