13 Famous North Korean Dishes and Foods

Bibimbap is a celebrated North and South Korean dish, voted by CNN Travel’s readers in 2011 as one of the world’s 50 most delicious foods. Known for its “mixed rice” essence, both South and North Korean versions have a great balance of flavor.

Its preparation makes use of local vegetables, sautéed and served atop rice with kimchi, gochujang (Korean chili paste), or doenjang. Essential to the dish are an egg and some slices of meat, which can be added either cooked or raw for added freshness.

The dish’s charm includes scraping up those crispy rice bits from the sides. In Pyongyang, North Korea, the region is especially popular with its vegetable bibimbap.

Dudubap, also referred to as tububap, is a quintessential North Korean dish cherished by local families featuring fried tofu as the main ingredient. The dish’s name means “tofu rice” referring to the elements involved in making dudubap.

Traditionally served as a hearty Korean breakfast, dudubap requires enveloping or stuffing fried tofu slices with rice, often accompanied by a spicy sauce to accentuate the tofu’s crispy and rich texture. It pairs excellently with salads or boiled vegetables.

Pyongyang onban is a rice dish hailing from North Korea’s capital, reputedly invented by a housewife under the pressure of preparing a quick meal from available leftovers for her imprisoned husband.

This dish has become a staple for significant North Korean celebrations and holidays. It primarily features steamed rice, shredded chicken, and dried mushrooms.

Furthermore, the rice specialty is generously drizzled with chicken broth and garnished with slices of hard-boiled eggs and a green bean pancake.

Injo gogi bap is a dish that emerged in the 1990s, a creative response to the acute famine in North Korea. With a name translated to “artificial meat”, the dish is all about wrapping a slice of soybean paste around kimchi-mixed boiled rice and dipping it in a sweet and spicy chili sauce.

Thanks to the combination of ingredients, injo gogi bap are valued for its meat-like texture.

Sungeo-guk is a distinguished North Korean soup primarily served as a dinner delicacy. This special gray mullet soup draws its fame from the gray mullet found abundantly in the Taedong River, which meanders through Pyongyang to Korea Bay.

The local gray mullet is renowned for its exceptional taste. Prepared by cleaning and gutting the fish, then seasoning it with black pepper, the soup is further enriched with herbs and spices before steaming.

While sungeo-guk is a year-round favorite, it’s best enjoyed outside of summer when the fish’s quality peaks. Interestingly, asking about the sungeo-guk experience is a common greeting for those returning from Pyongyang.

Mul naengmyeon is a Pyongyang-style of naengmyeon cold noodle. In essence, it is a beef or chicken, pheasant noodle soup, possibly with the addition of dongchimi (a type of cold kimchi) broth.

While rice is the staple food in North Korea, the chewy noodles for this traditional North Korean dish are always made from buckwheat. Although many people refer to mul naengmyeon as a “cold noodle”, it can be enjoyed both hot and cold.

North Koreans usually eat it with hard-cooked eggs, sliced cucumbers, and especially sugar. Sweetening the noodle soup with sugar garnish is a way of serving unique to the North.

Hoe naengmyeon is a unique variation of the classic naengmyeon noodle, originating from Hamhung, North Korea’s second-largest city. This version features raw marinated fish, including the nutty-flavored skate, similar to stingray.

The skate’s flesh is separated from the cartilage, marinated in vinegar, and then combined with noodles, dried squid, cucumbers, and sliced hard-boiled eggs, among other ingredients. Unlike traditional naengmyeon, which uses buckwheat for noodles, hoe naengmyeon opts for potato or sweet potato starch, resulting in a chewier and silkier texture.

Additionally, the Hamhung specialty stands out for its spicier taste, often served with gochujang (red chili paste).

North Korean kimchi is a salted and fermented cabbage dish from North and South Korea. Essential to North Korean cuisine, these cabbages go with a wide array of dishes, especially marinated meats, providing a salty and spicy taste.

While kimchi is celebrated in both Koreas as a national dish. However, the North Korean version distinguishes itself by being lighter in color, less spicy, yet tangier than its Southern counterpart.

Pansangi is a distinctive dining experience rather than a single dish in Kaesong, North Korea. This traditional Korean meal involves an array of dishes such as meat, egg, tofu, and kimchi, each served in small bronze bowls.

Accompanied by ample rice, soup, and Korean liquor, pansangi offers a holistic taste of Korean cuisine. The use of bronze bowls harks back to practices from the Goryeo Dynasty, with the number of bowls (typically between 9 to 12) signifying the guest’s status, the more bowls, the higher the esteem.

Ox trotter aspic is a savory jelly dish, distinctive in North Korea for featuring ox parts, particularly trotters, tails, and tendons, as its main ingredients.

This delicacy is crafted by slowly simmering these components over a low fire for several hours, a crucial step that yields a soft, transparent texture by extracting gelatin from the meat to form a thick broth.

Vegetables such as mushrooms, leeks, and peppers are often added to the broth to enhance its flavor. Once cooked, the mixture is cooled to set into a gelatinous form, creating a rich aspic that is traditionally served with horseradish or mustard.

Bindaetteok is a traditional North Korean pancake, deeply rooted in the culinary heritage of the former Pyongan Province. This savory pancake is made using mung beans, fermented cabbage, and pork, fried to achieve a hot, greasy texture.

The population in North Korea enjoys bindaetteok with soy sauce, offering a nutritious complement to local beer or the traditional liquor soju.

Mandu is a dumpling that plays an important part in both North and South Korea. They are dumplings cooked in different styles, such as boiling, steaming, pan- or deep-frying.

There are different Mandu varieties as well. But the most famous one in North Korea is Pyongyang mandu. The locals usually enjoy it on special occasions, such as celebrating New Year.

Hotpot is a comfort food in North Korea that combines sticky noodles, succulent meats, tender tofu, and a vibrant selection of rare vegetables. Available at any hotpot restaurant in Pyongyang, the dish is easily customized, adjusting the broth’s seasoning with salt, pepper, and chili to achieve the perfect taste profile.