01. What do they eat Korean?

Traditional Korean meals are based on Bap([bɑ́b], steam-cooked rice) and a number of Banchan([banchan], side dishes). Korean rice is similar with Japanese rice but is different from other Asian countries. Korean & Japanese rice are more glutinous and have more glow than others. 

Banchan varies with Breakfast, lunch, & dinner.
The essential banchan that never omit are soup and Kimchi, which are excluded from the number when counting how many Banchan are served.

Going back to Chosun Dynasty (1392~1910), there was a rigid status system with 4 classes, which limited many things such as the status roll, house style, even the number of Banchan. Only in palace 12 Banchan for a meal were allowed, 9 banchan were allowed to nobles, 5 or 7 to middle classes, and only 3 to the low class.

Many of Korean fine dining restaurants serve a lot of Banchan(more than 12) to attend the customers like royal or nobles.
              <Korean Fine Dining>

When eating plain rice(steam-cooked), we serve a number of Banchan but when eating rice cooked with something like fried rice or Bibimbap or Gimbap, we can minimize the number of banchan to 1 or 2(Kimchi or Kimchi & soup).

Banchan for a meal has to consist of various cooking methods, roasting, braising, salad, stir-frying, etc and the same ingredient is nearly repeated and has to contain the balance between 5 major nutrients.

With that being said, we can define Korean meal in a word “Balance & Combination”.
It is the combination of various ingredients and the cooking methods.
Some of Asian food that we can meet abroad are commonly oily. But, Korean food is not.

I hope you try healthy and tasty Korean food.



Thanks.

Leona