economy

Over 60 years have passed since the Okryu Restaurant of a Korean architectural style was built in the best place on the banks of the picturesque Taedong River and inaugurated in August 1960.

The restaurant has since become a favourite of the Korean people along with the Pyongyang cold noodles.

The demand for the noodles of the restaurant is still on the increase day by day.

Moreover, nowadays when sultry weather persists, the Okryu Restaurant is always packed with diners relishing the Pyongyang cold noodles.

The Pyongyang cold noodles can be said to be as good as an art work with all the elements of the dish combined harmoniously, including the sweet taste of meat stock, chewy strips of the noodles made with buckwheat as the main raw material, garnishes of harmonious taste and brass vessels enhancing the quality of the dish.

As buckwheat, which has long been regarded as a health food, has large contents of proteins, essential amino acids and lysine, it helps prevent hypertension and cerebral haemorrhage, promote digestion and neutralize poison.

The meat stock is very important in the noodles. Beef, pork and chicken are boiled slowly in cold water while scooping foam and fat, soy sauce and salt are added and the stock is boiled again before it is filtered with a sieve and cooled. The meat stock is mixed with watery radish kimchi juice. The mixture is featured by the fact that it is clear, refreshing and savoury.

Cooks of the restaurant preserve the taste peculiar to the Pyongyang cold noodles by the traditional method handed down for decades.

That is why many customers of the restaurant are not content with a bowl of the noodles and do not hesitate to order another bowl of the noodles for the appealing taste of the dish.

The Pyongyang cold noodles are also very popular among overseas Koreans and foreigners.

Overseas Koreans who tasted the noodles at the restaurant said that visitors to Pyongyang will feel regret all their lives if they fail to have the cold noodles and foreign visitors who took a liking to the noodles said they looked for the Korean dish back home, adding that they never forgot the Korean word “kuksu (noodles)”.

The restaurant has so far won lots of diplomas and medals at annual cooking festivals, cooking competitions and exhibitions.