[HN Gopher] Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016)
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Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016)
Author : herecomethefuzz
Score : 102 points
Date : 2025-02-16 05:24 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (simplyfabulicious.wordpress.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (simplyfabulicious.wordpress.com)
| TechDebtDevin wrote:
| Not sure how comfortable id be ordering from one of these
| resturaunts as an American.
| unixhero wrote:
| Why are you special in this regard?
| 867-5309 wrote:
| portion sizes
| kome wrote:
| ahahah!
| jajko wrote:
| More like chair sizes
| ahoka wrote:
| Probably could put you on all kinds of security risk lists.
| jajko wrote:
| I would rather stay away from russian or maybe chinese
| restaurants if westerner, those are actual enemies. Or just
| dont care, dont get seduced by random women out of your
| league and you will be fine.
|
| And if you mean US security risk lists well thats on US
| current paranoia coming from hard attempts of current
| government to make whole world hate US, nothing rest of the
| world cares much.
| xeromal wrote:
| Since NK is under sanctions by the US, I supposed you
| wouldn't want to give them any money for goods or services.
| It could blow back
| joecool1029 wrote:
| I've had Pyongyang soju when it was sold in the US around a
| decade or so ago, it was ok:
| https://finance.yahoo.com/news/north-korean-alcohol-
| imported...
|
| Bought it as a curiosity since I had never seen anything
| sold from DPRK before and it was just randomly at a liquor
| store. I guess the importer ended up getting arrested under
| FARA and you can't buy it anymore.
| unixhero wrote:
| Aha now I understand. But how does us tourists to PyongUang
| deal with this typically? Or rather how should it be
| solved?
| patman81 wrote:
| The article is from 2016. Did anyone find out if the restaurant
| is still open?
| larrysalibra wrote:
| Yes, it's still open.
|
| 10am to 9:30pm every day.
|
| https://surl.amap.com/ooIMl6hgaqj
| xvilka wrote:
| The article is from 2016, it's aeons ago, given the pace of
| Shanghai. I wonder, if this place still operates in 2025.
| morsch wrote:
| Seems that way. A review from ten months ago mentions the
| restaurant. https://maps.app.goo.gl/qa5KY49pHBRqLLTa9
| suraci wrote:
| https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FtKjeHEZX
|
| you may need vpn to watch this video about a south korean girl
| taked dinner in the restaurant
| perihelions wrote:
| - _" We heard that the girls stay in the Hotel (yes, upstairs)
| and they are seldom allowed out and that they do not get paid or
| if they do, the amount is for pocket money as everything from
| food and lodging to basic necessities are provided by the
| State."_
|
| In more straightforward language: these are slaves.
|
| [late edit]: Here's more about how these slave women are treated:
|
| - _" In contrast, he said the high achievers are rewarded with a
| trip to a North Korean restaurant, where they can pick one of the
| waitresses to spend the evening with. The top employee of the
| month gets to choose first. He likened it to a hostess bar - and
| accused managers of "preying on young men's sexual urges, to get
| them to compete and bring in more money"."_
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68226271 ( _" North Koreans
| working in China 'exploited like slaves"_ (2024))
| plagiarist wrote:
| > We found out that the girls are all from elite North Korean
| families. The one that served us shared politely that she has
| worked at this restaurant for one and the half years and all of
| them are University graduates who consider this their duty and
| only opportunity to work and serve their country by sharing
| their culture and food.
|
| I imagine it is worse for the people who aren't children of
| elite families, nor able to learn Mandarin to get a chance at
| spending a few years as a restaurant slave.
|
| There is a weird phenomenon I saw on some parts of Lemmy where
| people decide that, "because America is bad, therefore all its
| adversaries are good," so they'll be online praising every
| action from North Korea.
| amarant wrote:
| Unfortunately, this is an extremely common way of thinking.
| It's one of the reasons flinging dirt in politics is so
| effective I think.
|
| I wonder if there is any connection with this way of thinking
| and the many David vs Goliath style stories we get as a kid.
| Maybe we need more stories for children where every character
| is bad, or every character is good.
|
| There can still be conflict to provide an interesting story
| between two good parties, or between two bad parties.
| Tostino wrote:
| I liked Princess Mononoke a lot as a kid because of the
| ambiguity in most of the characters. No one was truly evil,
| or truly good in their actions.
|
| I definitely noticed it was different than most media at
| the time because of that.
| plagiarist wrote:
| I read their comment and immediately thought of the same
| movie. That story did moral shades of gray very well. I
| do wish there was more content like that.
| iJohnDoe wrote:
| Correct, do you want your child to be starving, cold, and
| without electricity or do you want them to at least be a
| restaurant slave?
|
| I'm sure the girls can't escape or their families will be
| killed.
| plagiarist wrote:
| That's what I mean, if even the people with means are
| opting for restaurant slavery for themselves or their
| children, the rest of the country is obviously in dire
| condition. People with means within the country are living
| lives they consider worse than restaurant slavery. People
| without means must be suffering yet worse conditions than
| whatever that is.
|
| And so I find it astonishing that people online are
| willfully deluding themselves into praising this country.
| jonp888 wrote:
| Until 2020 the you could book a stay in a backpacker hostel in
| Berlin that was actually located inside the North Korean embassy.
|
| Eventually the German government got fed up with them running a
| business out of their embassy and they had to shut it down.
| kuhewa wrote:
| That's incredible. Looks like they leased a building to the
| hostelers and it was shut down because it violated sanctions,
| but amazing that the $42,000 a month lease is worth it to
| dabble in for NK. Then again they were subletting parking spots
| and rooms previously, perhaps if the order is to milk any
| property or opportunity overseas it adds up.
| threeseed wrote:
| > $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK
|
| It's all because the country lacks foreign reserves.
|
| When I visited North Korea years ago the pre-determined
| hotel, shops, entertainment etc all required USD.
|
| And of course this all predates crypto which has made this
| trivial.
| eleveriven wrote:
| That's wild! It's such a strange setup
| sephalon wrote:
| I have to admit, I'd be curious to visit one of these restaurants
| myself. However, one has to be aware of the fact that these
| restaurants are reportedly linked to the secretive North Korean
| party organization, Room 39 [1], which means that all revenue
| flows directly into the hands of the Kim dynasty, so in the best
| case you'll help financing their next BMW or much worse, the
| nuclear arms program--neither of these I'm very comfortable
| with...
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_39
| QuinceOver wrote:
| After a quick search, I found there are North Korean
| restaurants in Seoul owned by escapees. Definitely a way to
| learn about the oppressed North Korean people shut away from
| the rest of the world without supporting their messed up
| leaders.
| tpm wrote:
| there are and some of them are great
| QuinceOver wrote:
| Wonderful to know. I never even thought to look up North
| Korean restaurants during previous visits to South Korea.
| Will definitely one up next time.
| shusaku wrote:
| I didn't see the price mentioned in the article, but given that
| most restaurants are barely getting by, are we sure they're
| really making meaningful money off this place (much less
| weapons money)? I wonder if it's more for covert activities.
| pantalaimon wrote:
| The article also mentions that the staff is not payed, which
| surely helps the bottom line.
| ReptileMan wrote:
| Sadly for a North Korean just having 2000 calories per day
| is considered a working class salary. 40% of the population
| is undernourished.
| suraci wrote:
| > so in the best case you'll help financing their next BMW or
| much worse, the nuclear arms program
|
| That's for sure
|
| tbo, dishes at the restaurant are very expensive , and the
| taste is just average(my personal opinion)
|
| the primary reason I went to there is I hope the money I paid
| can help them build more Hwasong-18s, or if it could help their
| 20x10 plan
|
| https://www.38north.org/2024/08/north-koreas-regional-develo...
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Going by my dad's constant repair bills for his BMW, saddling
| the North Korean regime with those could be good for diverting
| funds away from their more unsavory endeavors.
| throw-qqqqq wrote:
| This made me laugh :D
| dmoy wrote:
| If you want North Korean food, but not run by the North Korean
| government with the weird slavery shit, there's numerous Korean
| restaurants north of North Korea in Yanbian, Jilin/Changchun,
| etc. Just regular restaurants, mostly run by Chinese that are
| ethnically Korean.
| xeonmc wrote:
| Perhaps a better term to differentiate it from regime-run ones
| -- "Ethically North Korean Restaurants"?
| ido wrote:
| Are North and South Korea ethnically distinct?
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| Probably not in any meaningful way, but I would agree the
| above comment they are ethically distinct.
| kadoban wrote:
| Yes. Why would they not be?
| throwaway290 wrote:
| Easier to just go to any of them in an actual Korea in Seoul.
| dmoy wrote:
| Maybe? I dunno
|
| There's iirc <100k North Korean in South Korea, and >>100k in
| China, mostly Jilin province
| wcfields wrote:
| My experience echos this but on a smaller scale, I've visited the
| NK run restaurant in Bangkok in 2019 and found it to be basically
| any average nondescript very dated East Asian / Korean
| restaurant, but odd. It was smaller, maybe seating 60-75 tops?
|
| The food was fine, and they played NK music (the kind you'd hear
| on Korean Central Television) while we ate. The unique thing I
| recall on the menu was the Pyongyang Cold Noodles which I did not
| get.
|
| Unfortunately the waitresses did not do karaoke which I heard was
| the entertainment and the whole experience was notable but not
| like "holy crap".
|
| When asked about takeaways they did offer to sell me NK
| cigarettes and Soju.
| tpm wrote:
| Naengmyeon is worth trying, not only in NK restaurants.
| eleveriven wrote:
| It sounds like you had a pretty similar vibe to what I imagine
| these places are like... kinda surreal but not mind-blowing in
| the "holy crap" sense
| t3rra wrote:
| The food called "black rice" in the blog is called sundae or
| soondae (sundae) which in South Korea they put glass noodles and
| such instead of rice. So it is not North Korean specialty. If you
| the author haven't tried, you should definitely try from South
| Korean restaurants too and there are a different versions of food
| with sundae; steamed, in soup, stirfried in spicy sauce... etc.
| xvilka wrote:
| There is a plenty of sundae with rice too.
| situationista wrote:
| There used to be one of these in Dubai too, but it closed down
| during the pandemic. I remember a very surreal dinner there in
| circa 2016.
| maxglute wrote:
| There's a few NK restaurants in Beijing as well. Very mid food in
| the 90s. Went back in 2010s and they had a bunch of much tastier
| new items, can't tell if still traditional or making up new
| tradition to keep up with the times. Anecdotally from
| aquaintences, there's American style fast food in Pyongyang, and
| their fried chicken is very good. Have to keep up with the Korean
| peninsula fried chicken race.
| Obscurity4340 wrote:
| Do you think Great Leader enjoys American fast food as much as
| Disney Land?
| maxglute wrote:
| I think great leader got spoiled by best big macs when he
| went to school in Switzerland. I wouldn't be surprised if he
| regularly smuggle fast food ingredients straight from the
| suppliers in and run a personal fast food court. I think he
| gave up on reunifying with the south after all the Subway
| product placement in KDramas, and realized the south was too
| far gone.
| QuinceOver wrote:
| When I was living in Beijing in 2018-2020, there was a Korean
| restaurant I liked. It had the usual South Koren dishes (I'm a
| topokki fan myself), but I remember they did serve bottled North
| Korean beer. That was pretty cool, I have a photo of it
| somewhere.
| smcl wrote:
| Think the word is "tteokbokki"
| QuinceOver wrote:
| We are both correct. It is spelled both ways in English.
| anonu wrote:
| I went to the branch in Phnom Penh years ago. Basically the same
| format as described in the article, including the karaoke like
| rock performance. I recall there was dog on the menu. Otherwise
| it's your typical dystopian experience.
| renegade-otter wrote:
| Oh yeah, as if a regular North Korean has access to sushi.
| eleveriven wrote:
| Definitely an experience that leaves you with more questions than
| answers
| ciaovietnam wrote:
| I visited a similar NK restaurant in Saigon a few times before
| they closed down decade ago and the experience was the same. What
| impressed me is that all the NK waitresses can speak the local
| language (Vietnamese) fluently and can sing or play music
| instruments. The food is quite authentic, some ingredients are
| exported from NK. It was a good experience overall.
| waltercool wrote:
| How is this related to Hacker News?
|
| And why posting an article of 2016?
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