Comment by wagwang
13 hours ago
A korean meal is only limited by the size of the table. I've visited resturants in korea where there were no less than 30 plates that came out of 1 set meal.
13 hours ago
A korean meal is only limited by the size of the table. I've visited resturants in korea where there were no less than 30 plates that came out of 1 set meal.
I've visited Turkish breakfast restaurants, where the whole family sits around a table with 50-80 plates of various stuff, for about 15€. Eating needs 2 hours.
What do they do with all the food that doesn’t get eaten?
A common banchan plate might be an ounce of pickled vegetable with 10 calories. Next to a plate with an ounce of a different pickled vegetable sprinkled with sesame seeds with 12 calories. Next to a plate with an egg on it with 60 calories.
Every table, a buffet of tiny servings surrounding a large rice bowl.
30+ dishes isn't uncommon to serve to a group. The structure is less a statement about food abundance (which is definitely what the article is claiming) and more about the variety historically available to the class which can afford to eat in sit-down restaurants or be fed by courtly chefs.
The traditional Chinese sit-down restaurant experience (to grossly generalize) isn't that different; There might be as many entrees as there are people, using large serving bowls, but each person is by default expected to take a fraction of each entree.
There's not much leftover, as they are served in small little sauce-like plates. It's pretty frowned upon to ask for more banchan if you aren't going to finish it.
But yes, the leftover dishes are thrown away.
A substantial restaurant meal in Korea is usually served with several standard side dishes. Due to the expense and effort of providing these to each table, restaurants often require a minimum party size of two. Also, I'm not sure if it's illegal or just gross, but if a dish looks untouched, sketchier places will sometimes just pass it along to the next customer.
Reusing dishes that were served to another customer is absolutely illegal and carries significant penalties if caught. The problem, of course, is that it's difficult to catch.
Many middle-aged and older customers have a habit of mixing up leftover vegetables after a meal, and they encourage others to do so. The idea is that if everyone does the same, the restaurant can't reuse any dishes.
Meanwhile, honest restaurant owners want to assure customers that the their dishes are new. So they serve food in a way that will make it very obvious if it was reused. For example, kimchi is often served in long (~30cm) slices, so that customers will have to cut them themselves, as if breaking a seal.
Usually there isn't much. The plates are tiny and mostly have vegetables.
You eat them.
As someone who works in food service, that sounds like a nightmare, not just to prepare but to bring all of that to the table.
Nah it’s pretty easy https://youtube.com/shorts/OC0Bdc2Ks0o?si=xTioDi1DmyocrRVC
Most restaurants of this style have the full set pre-arranged on trays, stacked on shelves, ready to serve. Most of the banchan are a combination of dry, fermented, and strongly seasoned, so they don't spoil easily. When it's time to clean up, all the plates stack neatly on top of one another.
In terms of the total number of plates that the staff needs to serve and clean, it's probably not much different from a European meal that consists of several courses.