A North Korean website dedicated to the culinary arts has finally been found, two years after it supposedly launched.
On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that the website of the Korean Association of Cooks, known as Korean Dishes, had been accessed outside of North Korea for the first time. The website contain hundreds of recipes for “housewives’ convenience,” although considering the fact that internet access is highly limited, and an estimated 80 percent of households lack essential nutrients in their diets, it’s unclear exactly who is supposed to actually benefit from the website.
The site also features scans of a cookbook that is apparently at the cutting edge of North Korean cuisine, published in 1994.
(Screenshot: Korean Dishes)
Aside from recipes, the website also includes a “Cooking Culture” section, which details the origins of popular foods and lists a number of food-related proverbs. According to a presumably less-than-accurate translation from Google Translate, these proverbs include pearls of wisdom such as “Watermelon is also a line of taps away,” “Piece of man meat to eat my meat gives hot spots,” and “Attach the honey, but at least the drugs.”
(Screenshot: Korean Dishes)
Korean Dishes also claims to have been awarded a certificate of best software products from the 23rd National Software Contest and Exhibition, although this achievement becomes much less impressive in light of the fact that, according to Gizmodo, no such competition actually exists.
The website was first announced by the state-owned media in March of 2012 and again in January of 2013, but was assumed to exist only within the country’s own tightly-controlled intranet.