A Night Out in Pyongyang

Eric:
I'd planned this post to discuss some of the colonial architecture in it's various stages of (dis)repair around town, but Saturday night we went out with some of Rossana's colleagues to a North Korean restaurant, named unimaginatively enough, Pyongyang Koro (Korea).  The experience was so surreal, not to mention fun, that I thought I'd try to capture a bit of it. 

The first sign that this might not be an ordinary dinner - beyond the fact that it was a North Korean restaurant -  came as we entered into a somewhat ornate lobby and were met on both sides by a dozen 20'ish, identically clad Korean women lined up to welcome us.  It wasn't just the matching outfits, these women were all the same age, height, weight (meaning non-existent), with matching jewelry, and makeup. 

Part of our greeting party

 

We were escorted into the dining area, which was far more utilitarian and in keeping with my preconceptions of a North Korean restaurant.  Tables set up in long rows abutting a small stage.  The tables were made up nicely, but otherwise the dominant decoration was a photo mural of a large concrete building, presumably a structure of significance in Pyongyang, and numerous "No Photo" signs pasted to the walls and columns that ran throughout the large dining space.

Don't even think about it!

 

There were six of us in our party, so we were able to order a good assortment of dishes, and I have to say every single dish was amazingly good.  I'd post more pictures of the meal, but when Rossana attempted to take a photo of the food with her cell phone, one of the Stepford Waitresses dashed over and reprimanded her, pointing to the many, many signs prohibiting such clearly socially deviant behavior.  Rossana and I were the only two westerners (read "whites") in the joint, so perhaps we warranted special scrutiny.  



The lone food porn shot that almost got Rossana sent to a labor camp

Kimchee, naturally

 

What made this no photo policy particularly bizarre was that as soon as the floor show started - more about that in a minute - everybody in the restaurant started snapping photos of the performance with impunity, so I can only conclude that it's the food that is some sort of state secret.  I don't want to politicize this blog [last week's remarks about British imperialism aside], but popular theory at our table was that they're surreptitiously serving South Korean cuisine and don't want word to get back to Kim Jong-un.

Onto the floor show.  Turns out that the waitresses pull double duty as performers.  They sing, they dance, they play drums, they perform a "My Way" duet on the flute (seriously!), they go through elaborate costume changes faster than I can put on a pair of socks.

Just a few of their many outfits

 

Some of it was very good, some of it sounded a bit like cats being tortured, but it was all a heck of a lot of fun. 

 

Early in the performance the mama-san delivered a large bouquet of plastic flowers to various men seated in the audience with the understanding that you are supposed to present the flowers to your favorite performer during the evening.  As I was the only guy at our table, this responsibility fell to me. 

The bouquet hand off

 

Rossana engaged the waitress assigned to our table in an attempted conversation; initially each pointing to various objects and exchanging the Korean and English words for them, and ending with Rossana promising to return to teach her more Italian accented English.  As the conversation progressed, and assuming we understood correctly, our waitress is originally from Pyongyang, has been in Myanmar a month, and expects to stay three years.  She hasn't been here long enough to learn any of the routines for the floor show yet.  The restaurant is staffed entirely by women, even in the kitchen.  We didn't ask if it's true that they're all really intelligence officers as is speculated in the local media:

"The workers at this new restaurant are said to include “young ladies in their 20s selected from sincere North Korean families loyal to dictator Kim Jong-il.” They are well-trained not only in dancing and singing but also “for espionage,” according to the source." - Mizzima News From Myanmar, 30 June, 2011

One of our party has dined here before and said that they used to close out the show singing Country Road (in Korean), and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that they've changed up the ending as I was really looking forward to that, but after all they have to keep things fresh. 

...and when the check arrived, there was a substantial 'flower charge' for the plastic flower bouquet.  I hope some of the money makes it to the performers instead of helping to fund a missile silo or some such.