“I had thought about what would be a common taste for the
two Koreas and realized it would be traditional dishes. It’s part a shared
history from when the South and North were one. I’d like to make a wood burning
stove of peace that people from both sides can sit around.”
The division that has separated the two Koreas for over half
a century has created differences them in almost every realm. Especially, the
cultural rift is something seen as the greatest element to create integration
problems if unification is realized.
The Daily NK sat down for an interview on the 21st with Lee
Myeong Ae, director of Research Center for Traditional North Korean Cuisine,
who is studying Korea’s traditional dishes and gearing up for unification by
using food to bridge cultural gaps. Lee is a North Korean defector, who also
runs a restaurant in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul called “Yangban Chapssal Sundae.”
“I’m preparing and praying for unification through
traditional dishes,” Lee said. “I would like to make a wood burning stove of
peace for the time when South and North Koreans will sit down face-to-face at
the table. Also, it may be hard, but I want to create a cuisine perfect for
South and North Koreans and open a specialty restaurant in my hometown,” she
added.
 Image: Daily NK |
Lee first came to South Korean in 2011. One year later,
using her ten years of experience in the kitchen from back home in the North,
she took part in a cooking exposition in Daejeon, with chefs from all around
the world competing. The expo was held under three categories: Western,
Japanese, and Korean cuisine. Some 170 chefs competed in the Korean cuisine category–Lee
among them.
“I thought my heart was going to stop,” she said, describing
how she felt at the competition. “It was exciting not only to be standing
shoulder to shoulder with famous chefs but also that 30 experts were there to
critique my food.”
When the final scores were revealed, Lee felt her knees go
weak–she had grabbed sixth place in the Korean cuisine category. The first
prize went to a South Korean, second and third to a Japanese and Chinese chef,
respectively. However, with the director making it into the top ten as a North
Korean defector, some say she even stole the spotlight from the winner of the
competition.
“Unification is simply an issue of whether it will happen
today or tomorrow. It’s not far off in the future,” Lee said. “When we become
unified, I’d like to go back home and live a proud life. I think it’s the fact
that I’m working on creating a unified taste in traditional cuisine that gave
me the pride and drive that helped me win,” she said.
Lee did not forget to share a few words for other defectors
living in the South. “If you have a goal and try your best in life, you’ll go
beyond simply settling down in the South. You’ll find a reason to love both
South and North Korea, and this will change the quality of your life,” she said.
“Just as the compass needle spins around at first, but eventually points in the
right direction, if as a defector you hold on to your goal in life no matter
how lonely and difficult it may be, you can play a leading role in
unification.”
 The award presented to Lee at the 2012 Daejeon Cooking Exposition. Image: Daily NK |
The Daily NK [DNK]: How did you get involved in traditional
cooking in the South?
Lee Myeong Ae [LEE]: After I got out of Hanawon [the
government resettlement center for North Korean defectors] in 2011, I had a lot
of thoughts about what to do. I had behind me the experience of running a large
restaurant in Hamheung for over ten years. Hamheung is a large city with a lot
of people who have created a successful life for thesmselves at the market, and
to celebrate it, seek out delicious food at restaurants.
But in Korea, everyone looks for good restaurants. After
noticing that South Koreans enjoy eating their meals with very little seasoning
and appreciate it for being more natural or “well-being,” the idea struck me. I
decided to try to recreate the tastes from our ancestors who didn’t have
seasoning at their disposal. That’s what I think traditional food actually is.
DNK: You won a prize at a Korean Global Food Expo not long
after coming to the South.
LEE: It was when I took part in the expo that was held in
Daejeon in 2012. It had been about a year since I came to the South, and it
helped having self-studied hotel cuisine when I was running my restaurant in
the North. Hotel cuisine in the North refers to the type of cooking carried out
in luxury hotels in Pyongyang. I wanted to see how these skills would fare in
the South.
We had to complete a dish that the judges told us to make
within 40 minutes. I thought it would be nice to at least make it into the top
100 out of the 170 contestants. When the results came out and the people heard
that a defector won sixth place, all the attention fell on me. It was like I
was standing alone in the spotlight.
DNK: You run a restaurant in Seoul. How has the response
been so far?
LEE: When I first made sundae [Korean blood sausages] I
wanted to know why in South Korea they incorporate glass noodles into the
recipe. The noodles have great flexibility, so the sundae never bursts open
even if you make 100 kg of it. If you add glutinous rice, 20 percent of it pops
open, so you make less profit. Despite that, I wanted to preserve some of the
North Korean aspects, so I made traditional chapssal [glutinous rice] sundae,
adopting the North Korean method of adding glutinous rice, and the South Korean
style of not adding seasoning, and the response was great; I’ve made various
types of sundae and supplied them to restaurant owners from all over the
country.
Defectors here have said they enjoy it because they can get
a taste of home. It wasn’t necessarily only the market response, but rather the
idea that I could bring together tastes from the South and North that made me
happy. I now supply 700-800kg of sundae to areas in Seongnam, Ilsan, Daegu, and
Jeju Island.
DNK: Running your research center, the restaurant, and also
supplying goods around the country–that sounds like a lot of work.
LEE: I can’t even begin to explain the difficult times that
I went through. I’ve sometimes spent months trying to find traditional tastes.
I’ve been through one too many struggles for not understanding the market
economy. At times like that, I would just read one book after another. I would
spend all night researching traditional food, and then go out at the crack of
dawn to buy fresh vegetables and ingredients for sundae. It was hard on my body
and it made me tired, but when those who tried chapssal sundae told me it was
delicious and that it made them happy, it gave me a boost of energy. Also when
I heard customers from restaurants that I supplied showed good responses, it
was like rain during a drought.
DNK: What kind of plans do you have for the future?
LEE: Just because you’re from North Korea, you shouldn’t
stick to North Korean tastes only, and the same goes for South Korean tastes
just because it’s a more advanced country. I think the reason so many defectors
fail after opening restaurants in the South is because their tastes leaned too
much to one side. Competition is not just for within the South. Once the two
Koreas unify, there will be heated competition, as the North will open up to a
market economy as well.
To unify tastes from the South and North, it’s important to
bring out the original flavor. I think that comes from traditional food. We
need to study the history of our food and reintroduce it into modern cuisine.
I’m going to continue my efforts in developing these dishes that combine the
tastes of both sides. Unification should not be thought of as something grand.
Instead, I think if defectors can think of simple ideas and add meaning to
them, that in itself becomes unification.
* This article was made possible by support from the Korea Press Foundation.
