Corn Pasty

30-01-0

30-02-0

When passing the Okryu Restaurant situated in the picturesque Taedong riverside, I saw a crowded stand. When I went up to the stand with curiosity, I heard a woman ask the saleswoman for two pieces of corn pasty, which sounded strange to me. I know some foods made from corn, such as corn cake, corn pancake, corn jelly, corn noodle, etc., but the corn pasty was a strange word.

At that time Om Song Nam, chief of the public catering section of the Okryu Restaurant, who was standing in front of the stand, said, “True to the measure of the State to develop the people’s eating habit, we developed the corn pasty and have offered it to the people. I find everyone likes it very much.” Then he told me a story.

One day a few months ago, on her way back home, Paek Kun Sil, cooking workteam leader of the Okryu Restaurant, saw some people eating wheat pasty with relish at a pasty stand. At that time an idea flashed across her mind. Why don’t I make the pasty with cornflour?

As soon as she returned to the cookroom of the restaurant, she made various shapes of dough with cornflour and fried it. However, it didn’t work as she wanted. After repeating it several times, she finally found out how to process cornflour, how to cook it, how to control heat and how to fry.

The next day she told her colleagues about her opinion. Everyone agreed with her to make various kinds of corn pasty. Thus, they made some kinds of pasty stuffed with chicken, pork and eggs. Kang Un Gyong, a fresh cook, made corn pasty garnished with melon and lobster.
Thanks to their efforts, their corn pasty gained favours of the jury and participants for their unique taste and high nutritive values at the 21st cooking festival held in celebration of the Day of the Sun last April. The yellowish corn pasty stuffed with different ingredients such as meat, eggs, mushroom and carrot, which look appetizing and can be made easily at home, won the top award.

More and more people come to the corn pasty stand as the days go by. Kim Song Chol who lives in Changjon-dong, Central District, said, “I often come here. The corn pasty looks nice. It tastes good and smells pleasant. All my family like it and it’s my grandson’s favourite food. He likes the egg-corn pasty best.”

Ra Song Ryong, pupil of class 4-4 of the Changjon Primary School in Central District, said, “Everyday I take corn pasty with my friends on my way to and from school. I’m never tired of it. I like chicken-corn pasty best.”