The Marmot’s Hole

Remind me never to make fun of MBC again. Courtesy a very hard-working translator for the Chosun Ilbo:

Three foreigners, all long-time residents of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, have published a guidebook that lists about 50 of the city’s best restaurants.

The guidebook, entitled “Eating Out in Pyongyang,” was written jointly by three foreigners who have lived in North Korea, including Peruvian-born Roberto Christen, whose five-year stint in the country with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ended last year.

The book, which is not for sale commercially and distributed only to several hundred acquaintances, introduces about 50 of Pyongyang’s diverse restaurants that are frequented by foreigners living in the closed country and by the nation’s elite. It lists Pyongyang’s famous restaurants, where one can sample the exquisite tastes of both East and West, like hamburgers, hotdogs, and American-style pancakes, Japanese sushi, Chinese shark-fin soup and flying-fish egg salad, as well as Korean naeng-myeon (cold buckwheat noodles), bibimbap (rice with mixed vegetables), and all kinds of vegetable dishes.

Dear readers, you simply can’t make stuff like this up.