A variety of banchan makes a nutritious meal.
By Foong Pek Yee
foongpekyee@gmail.com
THE plates of colourful banchan (Korean side dishes) used to fascinate me during meals.
In fact I was more excited over the selection than the main dish.
According to The Korean Food Foundation, the size of a traditional Korean meal is determined by the number of “cheop” – vessel used for side dishes.
There are 3- cheop, 5-cheop, 7-cheop, 9-cheop tables; and a 12-cheop table (Surasang) is for the kings!
It is common to have at least three types of banchan for any Korean meal .
I must say banchan no longer excites me over the years.
But dishes of left over banchan, some untouched, left on dinner tables suddenly came to my mind of late.
It is not about food craving.
It is triggered by headlines on a looming food crisis worldwide.
An average (South) Korean throws away 130 kilograms of food a year, according to Korea’s Ministry of Environment.
While 95% of the food waste is recycled into products like compost and animal feed, food waste is certainly never a good thing to begin with.
Once I commented that banchan is more than enough for a meal, and the remark did not go down well .
Koreans see lavish meals as something to celebrate.
And I was told that it is polite not to finish all the food that is offered.