South Korean and North Korean Meal Comparison.

I have been to both North and South Korea, so I thought I would do a little comparison between the food.

I am going to compare just two average meals that were common during the time in both countries. I am not saying that it is an average meal for the country, or that it is the best the country has to offer, it is just the sample of food that I have to work with.

Above is an average meal for me when I was staying in South Korea. A healthy portion or rice, some kimchi, potato stuff, milk and soup. People like to show pictures of vastly impressive Korean dishes, but the truth is that most meals are relatively simple and basic.

Everything tastes amazing though. The soup and kimchi were the highlights of the meal.

And here is a typical meal during my stay in North Korea. I very much doubt that anyone else reguarly has meals as luxurious as this in North Korea, but since this is all I ate I can't commenton their food.

As you can see it is spread out into little dishes of mushrooms, octopus, rice, carrot and other mysterious things. Let's go from the top left and work along the top row. First is a worryingly fatty meat that was incredibly spongy. Then a strange fruit that wasn't very nice, then triangles of cheese which tasted fine, then some slices of meat which was fine but was cold and bland. Then there was some sticky orange rice which came off in clumbs and was generally inedible.

On the second row we have some vegetables and stuff, then some thin slices of that sort of rice bread. I don't know what it's called, but they taste pretty damn good. I think they are called seaweed slices or something like that. Then octopus (or possibly squid) which was cold and spongy. You had to work hard to chew through it. And the rest is boring.

Of course what I haven't mentioned is that in South Korea there are a million dining options. You can go with the average meal, which will taste fine and keep you going, but you can also have any number of other, more impressive meals. Whereas in North Korea you are already eating at a top level with the meal pictured, and sometimes they can't even manage that.

It's no surprise that I would prefer to hire a South Korean Catering company, than one from the North.