A Korean king ate from 12 side dishes, and kimchi didn't count toward the total
The little bowls crowding a Korean table are a map of history. Banchan grew out of a Buddhist-era ban on meat that lasted roughly six centuries, and the number of dishes once signalled rank: twelve for the monarch, fewer for everyone else, and kimchi never counted at all.
Banchan are small shared side dishes set in the middle of the table around rice, individual bowls of soup, a shared stew and perhaps a centrepiece like bulgogi. Portions are meant to be finished, then refilled if they run out, and the more formal the meal, the more bowls appear. Jeolla Province is known for especially lavish spreads. A table setting is named by its dish count, from 3 cheop up to 12 cheop, the royal standard, with nobles reportedly capped at nine.
The tradition probably began around the middle of the Three Kingdoms period, when Buddhist influence led monarchs to forbid meat. Vegetables moved to the centre of the cuisine, with palace kitchens elaborating preparation and presentation while commoners made smaller, plainer arrays. The Mongol invasions ended the ban, but by then vegetable cooking had shaped Korean food for good. Later, under the Confucian Joseon dynasty, royal cooking stressed restraint, formality and food as medicine, balancing yin and yang.
Fermentation is the backbone. Cooking oil was scarce in Korea, unlike China, where frying was favoured, and mountains plus fierce winters and hot summers made preservation essential. Grains, beans, fish and vegetables were fermented, so side dishes lean on fermented soy flavourings, healing herbs, and oils pressed from sesame or perilla. A 15th-century book by Gwidal Hong even claimed the quality of gochujang decided whether the farming year succeeded.
The families of dishes are easy to learn. Kimchi, usually napa cabbage fermented with chilli and salt, is the essential one; some Koreans feel a meal is incomplete without it. Namul covers steamed or seasoned vegetables, bokkeum means stir-fried in sauce, jorim is simmered in seasoned broth, and jeon are pan-fried pancakes such as scallion pajeon. Even glass-noodle japchae, a dish in its own right, can appear as a side.
Source: Banchan
