DPRK Food, Day 7

Lunch was at the hotel Korean hotel again with the usual rice-kimchi-soup combination. Had to charge my camera up for the Mass Games in the evening so no pictures. Sorry!

Luckily the hotpot dinner made up for the increasingly boring kimchi and rice meals. I am not usually a big hotpot fan. The problem with hotpot is that everything tastes the same but I was happy to have something different.

I wasn't sure what Korea hotpot would be like but I was delighted to see individual pots.

Here are the hotpot ingredients: beef, onions, cabbage, potatoes, cucumber, noodles and carrots. The beef goes in first and when it's boiling you put the rest in and finish it with a beaten egg.

It took about 15 mins to have the broth simmering again. There were seasonings for the broth: black pepper, chili, salt, and MSG!!!! It was my first time being served MSG right in front of my face. Interesting.

There were a number of side dishes in addition to the hotpot. The cuttlefish salad was not bad..to many tentacles and not enough cuttlefish though. I still prefer the spicy Thai version.

Some chicken and potato stew thing. A little dull but not bad at all. It was as good as a chicken and potato stew could get.

Chicken and cucumber salad with sesame oil. Light and refreshing and a good buffer dish to have with the meaty hotpot.

There was the fried flat fish of course, as you can see on the top right corner of the pic. We didn't really know what these balls were. They had a faint sweet taste and spongy in texture. Almost like a fried tofu ball.

Today's favourite: the potato slices in the hotpot! Somehow they absorbed all the flavours and essence of the broth. Yum!