I came across an article on traditional Korean royal cuisine while perusing the The Korea Times this morning. OK, I lied about reading the Times, I'm not sure how I linked to the article. Also known as surasang, Korean royal court cuisine was served during Korea's Joseon Dynasty, which ruled the country until 1910. As you can see the meal is laid out on three tables, a main one set with a multitude of banchan (small appetizer-type plates) along with rice and soup and two smaller tables with other dishes. Other than noting that a female assistant would taste each dish to ensure that the monarch was not being poisoned, there's not many details about the food itself in the Times piece.
Curiousity led me to open up my friendly Wikipedia where I soon found a 1,500-word article that proved not only to be a good introduction to surasang, but a pretty comprehensive study of Korean cuisine in general. It's worth reading just to know the Korean words for various types of banchan.
In case you're wondering, sura means a bowl of boiled rice or rice with added grains, and sang means table. Hence surasang. Now all I need to do is find out where to try surasang in New York City.
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