{"id":6455,"date":"2021-11-01T08:25:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T08:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koreanischkurs.com\/food-culture-and-table-manners-in-korea\/"},"modified":"2023-10-21T18:13:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T18:13:11","slug":"korean-table-manners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreanischkurs.com\/en\/culture\/traditions\/korean-table-manners\/","title":{"rendered":"Food culture and table manners in Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this article, I’ll tell you about table manners in Korea. First, I tell about basic elements of Korean food, Korean food culture and table etiquette.<\/p>\n\n

I also share how Koreans think about food.<\/p>\n\n

What are the basic elements of Korean food?<\/h2>\n\n

Koreans always eat rice (\ubc25). With every meal, yes, including breakfast, but nowadays Koreans don’t just eat white rice (\ubc31\ubbf8) because we think a lot about good nutrition and health. We eat rice with mixed grains (\uc7a1\uace1) or mixed with black rice (\ud751\ubbf8). Basically, black rice is more nutritious than white rice and more delicious. It has the better consistency and richer flavor. When white rice is cooked with black rice (about 10%), the white rice turns purple. <\/p>\n\n

Rice<\/strong> (\ubc25), a soup<\/strong> (\uad6d) or stew<\/strong> (\ucc0c\uac1c), and kimchi<\/strong> (\uae40\uce58) are the basic elements for Korean food. Kimchi, Korean cabbage salad is made from cabbage, chili powder, fish sauce, garlic and onions and fermented.<\/p>\n\n

If we have soup, we usually don’t need stew. Conversely, if we have a stew, we don’t need soup. The soup is usually clear and the stew is thick. <\/p>\n\n

A bowl of soup is usually served individually, but a stew involves the whole family eating from the same pot. So the position of soup and stew on the table is also different. I’ll tell you about it later.<\/p>\n\n

We eat not only the basic elements, of course, but also many different side dishes (\ubc18\ucc2c). Side dishes are usually served in small bowls, as they don’t need to be as large as the main course. In fact, kimchi is one of the side dishes, so you can’t eat kimchi as a main dish.<\/p>\n\n

Anything can be a garnish. Side dishes are served on small plates or in bowls and, unlike rice and soup, are shared with other people.<\/p>\n\n

At the moment we are thinking a lot about hygiene. When we eat at a restaurant with someone who is not family or a friend, we sometimes use a small personal plate of apjeobshi (\uc55e\uc811\uc2dc) so we can eat separately.<\/p>\n\n

The Korean table culture<\/h2>\n\n

Where should rice, soup, side dishes, etc. be placed on the table?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In Korean table culture, a smaller bowl of rice is placed on the left side and soup is placed on the right side of the rice. On the right side of the soup, place the cutlery (\uc218\uc800). The cutlery is a spoon (\uc21f\uac00\ub77d) and a couple of chopsticks (\uc813\uac00\ub77d). The spoon should always be on the left side of the stick.<\/p>\n\n

A bowl of rice and soup is eaten by one person, but a stew is shared with others, so it is placed in the middle. Side dishes are also placed in the middle so everyone can eat.<\/p>\n\n