Dishes of the Hwanghae Provincial Area
   Former Hwanghae provincial area covered the present North and South Hwanghae provinces along the west coast of the country, which are known as the country’s granaries and abound with marine products, edible herbs and mushrooms.
   Therefore, various dishes of cereals, marine products and edible herbs were developed in the area.
   Special dishes of the area were Haeju rice hash, rice mixed with kimchi or bindweed roots, glutinous rice cake, steamed rice cake, mung-bean and potato starch noodles, ground mung-bean soup and etc.
   Haeju rice hash, or called Haeju kyoban or koldongban, is well known as a traditional dish. What makes it distinctive among similar rice hashes from other areas is that bracken in Mt Suyang and shredded laver are mixed in it.
   In early spring polished rice or hulled millet are cooked with fresh bindweed root, which stimulates appetite.
   The Hwanghae provincial people were especially fond of rice cakes, so they prepared them for holidays and wedding ceremonies and also to entertain guests.
   There were glutinous rice cake dressed with bean flour, white rice cake steamed in layers, songphyon (half-moon-shaped rice cake steamed on layers of pine needles), mung-bean and potato starch noodles, mung-bean jelly, ground mung-bean soup, rice and adzuki porridge, rice cake either dressed or stuffed with adzuki, and sorghum porridge.
   The provincial people ate mung-bean and potato starch noodles and mung-bean jelly in summer, saying that they were good for health and longevity.
   The area is also noted for the dishes of marine products, including croaker, herring, short-neck clam, small kind of squid, anchovy, sand launce and laver. Typical of them are roasted croaker and herring, soup of short-neck clam and laver, steamed short-neck clam and egg, pickled shrimp, dishes of sand launce hauled in the sea off Ryongyon and Monggumpho, fermented shellfish of Yonan, and griddled laver dressed with peppered bean paste.
   To prepare the griddled laver, laver is applied with thick paste of cooked glutinous rice flour and peppered bean paste, sprayed with sesame powder and dried, griddled and served in cuts. Laver from Ongjin was counted as best in taste.
   Melon pickled in peppered bean paste, coriander kimchi and dishes of wild edible herbs, such as codonopsis lanceolate, matrimony vine, and Malus baccata, were special dishes of the area.