The respected Comrade
"We should promote our traditional dishes and costumes, sustain the excellence of our language and manners and further develop Koryo medicine and traditional architecture."
The great leader Comrade
One day in June Juche 76 (1987) he gave an official concerned a task to make some traditional dishes of the country, even pin-pointing the kinds.
Wishing to bring him pleasure by cooking good dishes, the official and some cooks carefully prepared different kinds of rice cake (such as the tail-shaped rice cake, rice-and-mugwort cake, fancy rice cake, half-moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with red bean, and the one stuffed with mung bean), pancakes and other dishes made from edible greens and fruits richly available in the country. All the dishes looked appetizing, indeed.
The great Leader looked at each of the dishes carefully, kindly asking who had made it and tasting it with great satisfaction.
Pointing to the half-moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with mung bean, he asked the official if he had tasted it. He answered that he had tasted the one stuffed with red bean but not the one stuffed with mung bean. Now the great Leader said that the taste of the cake stuffed with mung bean was very unique, and that it was made well.
Having a pleasant look at the official and cooks who were awfully obliged for his generous praise, the great Leader said happily: There are dozens of kinds of delicious rice cake alone. The taste of dishes made of wild greens is also unique. All the dishes are good to see and have their unique taste to stimulate appetite. This is really pleasing.
The great Leader asked to the cooks not to keep such cooking skills for themselves but widely disseminate them to the general public so that the people could prepare and eat traditional dishes themselves at any time, to say nothing of holidays.
The official and cooks replied that they would do as the great Leader instructed.
The great Leader said: I was right to give the task of making traditional dishes today. Perhaps you and many other officials and rising generations are not well informed how many traditional dishes we have in our country, what kinds of dishes our people ate on what holidays from ancient times, and what kinds of dishes they preferred to have when the season changed.
He continued to say that what he had been convinced of since he waged the anti-Japanese guerrilla struggle was that the traditional dishes the Korean ancestors had handed down generation after generation were apparently the best in the world.
The officials unanimously agreed with the great Leader, admitting that they had not known there were so many different kinds of traditional dishes.
The great Leader said in easy language: Dishes made from wild greens found easily everywhere in our country and different cereals are all nutritious foods. Their medicinal value is very high.
Pointing out a number of foods he explained what kind of medicinal effect each of them has, and said the taste of certain foods differ when they are hot and cold, and that consequently the medicinal value of the foods also vary.
Hearing the great Leader explain in plain language about the traditional dishes of the country, nutritional differences of foods and their pharmacological effects, the cooks, who had been proud that they were well informed of cuisine, were struck with admiration at his profound knowledge and general information on food.
Now the great Leader earnestly asked the officials and cooks to further find out and promote dishes unique to the Korean nation in the future so as to carry on the time-honored folklore and tradition generation after generation.
Hearing his words they came to understand why the great Leader had asked them to prepare traditional dishes.
Today the nation's food tradition is developing further thanks to the wise leadership of the respected Comrade
