Comment by mapt

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.