October’s One
That time I wrote about Korean table etiquette for a Korean Media Company
Etiquette Korean Dinner Table, Plank Media 2015
Point of view
At the Korean table, etiquette is as important as food. Whether you’re at your
favorite BBQ restaurant or you’ve been invited home for dinner, to eat authentic
Korean food means eating it authentically. Even at its most casual, the Korean dinner
table is where the respect you show through manners is king.
Manners make the meal. Universally, food is prepared with the way it will be eaten in
mind. Noodles are appreciated differently when eaten quietly. Wine is better had when
it is attentively poured by someone else.
Everything has its place. It seems like those little side dishes (banchan) set down in a
clinking blur are random, but each type of dish belongs to a specific spot on the table
and people sit based on age and rank.
Drinking is an art. There are few countries in the world where the drinking history and
culture has its own Wikipedia page. Take drinking just as seriously as eating.
Utensils are people too. The Korean use of utensils is specific and unique. Consider
utensils as silent dinner guests who want to stay clean and don’t want to be sucked on
or bashed against bowls.
Tips and Suggestions
You might be at a more formal table than you realize. When you sit down, look at
who is seated furthest away from the front door–that seat is for the person of honor. If
you hear someone say the phrase,“Jal mukkessebubnida (I will eat well)“ to the person
at the head of the table, that’s a good indication that you are at a more formal meal
than simply hanging around the grill. In that case, wait until the person at the head of
the table starts eating before you even pick up a utensil. Pace your meal to the head of
the table’s and finish just as or just after he or she finishes.
Get in, get out. When you select your food from one of the communal dishes, use
precise movements and pick the most convenient piece of meat or kimchi. Hovering
over and picking through communal dishes isn’t going to show you in the finest light.
Give your food its space. Show reverence for your rice and leave the bowl on the
table. Bringing your rice and soup bowl to your mouth sends the wrong message. The.
kimchi has a home on the back row, meat dishes on the right, sauces in the middle andvegetables
on the left. Hand dishes to people who are out of reach and have them do the same. Your table
orientation is based on the person sitting furthest from the front door.
Keep Utensils Separated. Need some rice? Put down the chopsticks to the right of the
spoon and pick up the spoon. Want some kimchi? Put down the spoon to the left of
the chopsticks. The spoon and chopsticks do not want to be in your hand at one time.
Drink well together. Watch the level of your companions’ cups and pour their drinks as
soon as the cup is empty. They will do the same in return. Pour drinks using your right
hand and gently support the pouring wrist with your left hand. Receive drinks in the same manner.
Facts
Family and dining are one. “Shikgu” the Korean word for “family” means "mouths to
feed.”
On screen, the manners go out the window. Online Korean eating shows (mokbang) blithely
highlight many of the taboos of the table and are a celebrated and profitable form of
entertainment. A show host can make as much as 9K in a month. Beomfreeca the most popular
mokbang host, has over 600,000 subscribers and nearly 220 million views.
Chopsticks and taboo. At funerals, the dead are offered bowls of rice with chopsticks
stuck vertically in the rice–which is why one never leaves their chopsticks in their rice
bowl at the dinner table. Unless you want the side eye of death.
Silver Chopsticks. Korean chopsticks are stainless steel because royalty used silver
chopsticks. Blackened silver was an indication that they had been exposed to poison.
Side Dishes. The number of banchan (side dishes) served at the table is largely based
on the formality of the meal. 3 being the minimum and 12 being court-style.
Kimchi Regardless of how many side dishes are served, one of them will be Kimchi.
People
Hooni Kim is the first chef to win a Michelin star for a US Korean restaurant.
Anthony Bourdain says about Korean food, “It’s the next—it was long ago the next
thing—but to a great extent, the chefs that are driving the development of what we
would call american cuisine are, to a greater and greater extent, Korean American. “
Chef Massimo Bottura makes a kimchi lasagne
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo told Korean President Park Geun-hye, ”I often
eat Korean food.”
Places
Portland, Oregon hosts MukJa! possibly the world’s hippest food festival
LA and NYC are two of the largest epicenters for Korean food in the US.
Soup Alley (Eungam-dong Gamja) in Seoul. Where you can get pork back bone soup
(Gamjatang) 24-hours a day.
Northern Lights Restaurant in Barrow Alaska is the Northernmost Korean restaurant
in the US.
Seoul was home to the largest Kimchi making session in the world. 3,000 kimchi
makers making 250 tons.
