Rice is the backbone of almost every Korean meal and the vast majority of the time, every person eats a bowl of rice with their meal and main dishes are shared. These dishes are typically meats, soups, stews, or noodles, and can either be eaten directly from the dishes in which they were served or spooned onto individual plates. When you eat at a Korean restaurant, your various side dishes (banchan) will come to you before your meal in small bowls and can be anything from vegetables to meat to seafood prepared in any number of ways. Korean dishes are all served at the same time, so there are no separate courses like in Western cuisines. 

Like the main dishes, banchan, which introduce a variety of flavors and textures to the meal, are also meant to be shared. Banchan can be eaten with rice or can accompany Korean bbq, in which meat is grilled at the table. Once the meat is cooked to taste, it is placed in crisp lettuce, along with rice and bean paste (ssam jang), to form a bite-sized wrap (ssam).  The different banchan can either be added to the wrap or eaten alongside it.

Korean cuisine stands out from other cuisines in a way that it offers an environment of communal eating shared between family and friends. We hope that you will enjoy a family driven table setting of the shared dishes and embrace the Korean dining experience of eating together.