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A market in something, every now and then
North Korean edition, of course, and now it is pizza:
It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria...
Last year a delegation of local chefs was sent by Kim to Naples and Rome to learn the proper Italian techniques after their homegrown efforts to mimic Italian cuisine were found by Kim to contain "errors".
In the late 1990s Kim brought a team of Italian pizza chefs to North Korea to instruct his army officers how to make pizza, a luxury which is now being offered to a tiny elite able to afford such luxuries in a country that cannot feed many of its 24 million inhabitants.
Despite the food shortages high-quality Italian wheat, flour, butter and cheese are being imported to ensure the perfect pizza is created every time.
"Our people should be also allowed to enjoy the world-famous food," the manager of the Pyongyang eatery quoted Kim as saying, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper.
The paper, which is often seen as a mouthpiece for the communist regime, added the restaurant had proved to be a major hit after it opened in the capital Pyongyang in December.
"I've learned through TV and books that pizza and spaghetti are among the world's famous dishes, but this is the first time that I've tasted it," Jung Un-Suk, 42, told the newspaper, "They have unique flavours," she said.
The news that Kim's dream of making genuine Italian food available in the capital has been realised comes as North Korea threatens to test-launch a rocket which the US believes is capable of striking America.
I thank Leonard Monasterio for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 17, 2009 at 12:20 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink
Comments
Wouldn't it have been simpler to order take-out from South Korea?
Posted by: Curt at Mar 17, 2009 12:35:26 PM
Wow! Wonderful! Yet another way in which the party nomenclature could differentiate themselves from the dirty, poor, unwashed, hungry proles that pay their salaries!
Every single producer who sells food to this pizzeria for Kim and his cronies to enjoy while they starve the rest of the country should be boycotted. I, for one, am still boycotting Pepsi for selling their stupid cheap Coke knock-off in Romania during communism. Who do you think got to drink that, other than Ceausescu's party bosses and their cousins?
Boycott Pepsi, and boycott whoever sells the North Korean commies good food!
Posted by: Bushequalhitler at Mar 17, 2009 12:41:09 PM
Great. Now will someone teach the good people of Venice to make pizza?
Posted by: dearieme at Mar 17, 2009 12:47:08 PM
If the poor North Koreans are ever released from their bondage, what is really fascinating to me is how they will cope culturally when they fully appreciate the damage that one little man inflicted on them. I mean the starvation and poverty of communism is so desperate he might literally be shaping their genetic history. What will they do?
Posted by: Billare at Mar 17, 2009 1:02:43 PM
"It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria..."
Interesting...was this the slow pace of technological progress for much of human history?
Posted by: Billare at Mar 17, 2009 1:06:26 PM
It's true, one man forever ruined the narrow mustache for everyone. Which brings me to Bushequalhitler's comment. Companies don't support tyrants, the people do. And if we boycott, embargo, or besiege the people support the tyrant all the more.
Posted by: Andrew at Mar 17, 2009 1:10:38 PM
Wow, Curt. That comment is pure gold. Thanks for that.
I'm actually in favor of this, contra Bushequalhitler's comments (though you do have a point). Anything that points out the incredible level of inequality in N.K. to its own citizens is probably a good thing in the long run.
Soon, everyone will want pizza! Viva la revolution!
Posted by: d.cous. at Mar 17, 2009 1:19:22 PM
"It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria..."
And how long did it take them to make a nuclear weapon?
Posted by: MS at Mar 17, 2009 1:32:21 PM
Amusingly, the North Korean leadership shares this in common with the Stuff White People Like demographic: they both place a high price on "authenticity." Dictatorship aside, I'm sure there are many SWPLers who would cheerlead a hugely inefficient system to fly in authentic Italian chefs, materials, etc., rather than suffer the indignity of local chains that cater to a domestic audience.
Posted by: a_c at Mar 17, 2009 1:37:31 PM
They might have had quicker success if they went to Chicago to find out how to make Pizza. I've had Pizza in Rome and in Chicago and the latter is better.
Posted by: marksany at Mar 17, 2009 1:38:52 PM
You really do NOT need butter to make a good pizza.
Posted by: Francesco at Mar 17, 2009 2:03:35 PM
italian pizza <-- iz not so good. Heck, Uno's is better.
Posted by: shawn at Mar 17, 2009 3:14:42 PM
Now if only I could get a good taco in Pyongyang....
Posted by: Farmer at Mar 17, 2009 3:33:34 PM
North Korea is like a year's compendium of The Onion brought to life.
Posted by: Greg at Mar 17, 2009 4:48:46 PM
On the other hand, now that they have pizza, what else could they want, really?
Seriously, if the government just delivered pizza to my door every day, I'd probably stop complaining.
Posted by: Andrew at Mar 17, 2009 5:19:42 PM
When Pyongyang hits your eye
with a big pizza pie,
that's amore.
(And a rocket.)
Posted by: John at Mar 17, 2009 8:59:31 PM
To d.cous:
North Koreans already know the level of inequality in their country. They don't need the grand opening of Party Pizzeria to remind them of that. In Romania, we knew very well the level of inequality during communism. We knew that even entering Party stores, let alone buying Pepsi from them, would cause the secret police to pay the misguided prole a visit. In North Korea it is certainly even worse. You seem to be suggesting that the fall of communism was caused by the proles suddenly realizing that they do not have the same kind of refrigerators the exploited workers in the "capitalist hell" had. This is a very popular notion, but it is entirely incorrect. We the proles knew all along that the capitalist world was better, but we couldn't do anything about it before the occupying power, Soviet Union, lost the Cold War. The only people whose eyes would be opened by more blatant inequality in the communist paradises of North Korea and Cuba are the Michael Moore and Sean Penn's of the world, but I doubt they are paying much attention.
Inequality alone never leads to revolution. Think about it: it is true that the more unequal things are, the more the proles would like to revolt, but then again, the more the party bosses would like the things to stay how they are, and they are the ones with the power.
Which brings me to Andrew's comment:
This is another popular misconception, based on wishful thinking about Cuba's embargo: you made things difficult for the dictator, people are going to rally around him. No way! In Romania, people were waiting for the Americans to come and rescue them. For years they wished a war, with whatever that entails, would save them. They were willing to die, and some of them actually did eventually die, to end the regime. Not selling Pepsi to the dictator's cronies would not have made them rally around him. However, selling Pepsi, Mercedeses, movies etc. to the dictator's cronies makes them like the dictatorship more, cause they do not lose too much from living in a nation in which very few starve the many. Like it or not, it is the dictator's cronies wanting goodies that are not available to them that causes revolutions. Embargoes, blockades, wars and such help; selling Pepsi and other goodies to Saddam Husseins and his sons of the world does not.
But even if you are right, I suggested boycotting the companies that deal with the North Korean regime, not North Korea. We should make these companies pay the true social cost of doing business with North Korea, which is huge: more years of starvation for the proles there, because the party leaders can now enjoy the same food as the regular folks in South Korea. We talk about "social responsibility" of a company and it usually means not to throw junk in the water, cause maybe somebody down river might get an infection from it, and we all agree that is such a great idea. How about giving, what, 10,000 in profits and not prolonging the Norht Koreans' hell any longer? How is that for "social responsibility"?
Boycott the companies! And boycott Pepsi!
Posted by: bushequalhitler at Mar 17, 2009 10:29:01 PM
To summarise bushequalhitler: Boycotts do not affect dictators and generals. Boycotts DO affect the Colonels, Majors and Policemen. And these are the guys who keep the dictators and generals in power.
And change your name, that is SO last year.
Posted by: doctorpat at Mar 17, 2009 11:57:12 PM
No, doctorpat, boycotts do affect dictators and generals, negatively. Boycotts do affect the Colonels, Majors and Policemen, also negatively. This is almost self evident, actually. If Castro were helped by US embargo, i.e. by Cuba not trading with the US, anything US does, Castro would still find a way for Cuba not to trade with US. It is not like he has to put it to a vote or anything.
It is also true that boycotts also hurt the proles. But most of the time their life is so miserable that there isn't anything you could do to make it significantly worse. But you could hurt the dictator, and the generals, and the colonels down to the last pen pusher who convicts people to hard labor for saying a joke about Castro. Let's do that by boycotting any company that does business with them. Boycott Pepsi!
OK, I will change my name. Who equals Hitler this year?
Posted by: Bushequalhitler at Mar 18, 2009 12:19:24 AM
You folks so eager to see the North Korean dictatorship are a bit misguided. These Communist hold-outs are the only thing keeping historical revisionists from completely re-writing Communism as being not-so-bad.
Diversity is a good thing. I hope there will always be a few miserable and belligerent Communist dictatorships out there just to keep people aware of how bad Communism is.
Posted by: Rex Rhino at Mar 18, 2009 1:03:01 AM
Pizza has been available in Pyongynag since at least 2005. Although the qulaity is not great, it has improved in recent years, acording to the employees, because of the presence of US NGO workers.
Posted by: Curtis Melvin at Mar 18, 2009 8:43:58 AM
Forgive me for remembering inconvenient details, but weren't North and South Korea on the verge of re-integrating, a la East and West Germany, until Bush intervened and f**ked it up?
Posted by: SJ at Mar 18, 2009 9:07:42 AM
They are seeking outdated technology.
Two words: Chicago Style.
Two more words: Uno's franchise.
Posted by: ZBicyclist at Mar 18, 2009 9:11:00 AM
See, doctorpat, judging by SJ's comment, Bush is still very much Hitler. If it weren't for Bush, North Koreans would not starve today because their dictator would have simply given all up to pursue a career directing movies like his buddies Sean Penn and Michael Moore. Perhaps in Cuba, where they visit often. In fact, it is well known that Kim Il Jong wanted to give it up all along, but he waited for the Bush presidency to do it because he wished his gesture had a larger, more significant meaning. You know, highlighting all the wonderful things we could have if we did not elect a cruel and despotic tyrant like Bush.
Jesus, man! Don't you recall what had to happen before the East and West Germany reintegrated? East Germany and their occupying power, Soviet Union, had to lose the Cold War. The degree of ignorance the Bush hatred generates is unbelievable, even now, after years and years of listening to this nonsense.
Posted by: Bushequalhitler at Mar 18, 2009 11:16:26 AM
SJ said, but weren't North and South Korea on the verge of re-integrating, a la East and West Germany, until Bush intervened and f**ked it up?
The short answer is that we have no way whatsoever to really know. North Korea will do whatever its Great Leader wants it to do, and he doesn't seem all that eager to play well with others.
What he does seem eager to do is to fool the US and others into thinking he will give them what he wants, just so long as the US and others gives him all kinds of aid. But he never delivers, and it is unclear if he ever had any intention of doing so.
In other words, North Korea was never anyone's "to lose", since it was never anyone's to win.
Posted by: happyjuggler0 at Mar 18, 2009 11:37:52 AM
