The Real Side Dish: Why Banchan (Korean Side Dishes) are not just ‘Side Dishes’
Hello. This is KoreaFeel.
Any foreign visitor to a Korean restaurant will be surprised. That’s because the table is filled with countless small plates even before the main dish is ordered. These are the Banchan (Korean Side Dishes). 🍽️
However, understanding Banchan as the ‘Side Dish‘ of Western dining culture is a major misunderstanding and misses the essence of the Korean table. 🚫
1. Banchan are not ‘Complements’, but ‘Components of the Table System‘
The most decisive reason why Banchan cannot be seen as Side Dishes is that in Korean meals, ‘Bap (Rice) 🍚’ is the center, and there is no separate Main Dish like in the West.
- Korean Meal Structure: Bap (Center) 🍚 + Banchan (Components for Combination) 🥗 + Guk/Jjigae (Liquid Element) 🍲
- The Role of Banchan: Banchan are the ‘different colors of paint’ that create new flavors every time on the ‘white canvas’ that is Bap. 🎨
2. Why is Banchan highly seasoned? (Perfect Balance with Bap)
If you eat Banchan alone without Bap, you might find the saltiness, spiciness, or tanginess to be too intense. 🧂 This is not because the seasoning is wrong.
- Banchan Seasoning: All Banchan are not made to be eaten by themselves, but are designed to taste best when ‘combined with’ the simple, ‘unseasoned’ Bap. ⚖️
- Korean Wisdom: The strong seasoning of Banchan is neutralized by Bap, achieving the optimal balance of flavor and saltiness, and simultaneously maximizing ‘Bapsim 💪‘ by encouraging more satisfying consumption of Bap—a wisdom rooted in preservation and eating culture.
3. Before Bap arrives, you don’t eat Banchan. (The Order of the Meal)
The most important cultural insight and unwritten rule of the Korean table is this: Koreans do not start eating Banchan until Bap, the center of the meal, is served. ✋
Foreign visitors might feel impatient, thinking, “Isn’t it an appetizer?” However, this rule symbolizes the following:
- The Start of Order: Since Banchan exist for combination with Bap, it signifies the etiquette and order of the table that the entire meal has not started until the core element, Bap, is laid out.
- Cultural Emphasis: Eating Banchan before Bap gives Koreans the impression that the ‘table is incomplete,’ 📜 which clearly shows that Banchan are fundamentally different from Western appetizers or side dishes.
4. Banchan is a Symbol of ‘Sharing‘ and ‘Jeong (Affection)‘
All Banchan is fundamentally placed on a large communal plate to be shared and eaten together, not individual plates. This visually demonstrates the Korean spirit of sharing and community. 🤝
- Through Banchan, the sense of kinship as ‘people who eat together (Sikgu)‘ is shared.
- If someone says, “This is delicious,” the act of placing that Banchan on the other person’s Bap is an expression of ‘sharing Jeong (deep affection).’ 🥰
Banchan is not merely a combination of ingredients, but a cultural insight symbolizing the warmth and equality of the Korean heart at the dining table.
