The drawer beside your knee: how Korean diners set their own table

Sit down at a neighbourhood restaurant in Seoul and the table looks unfinished. There are no spoons, no chopsticks, no water, and nobody is on the way to bring them.

The drawer under the table edge

Run a hand along the side of the table and you will find a shallow drawer. Inside are the sujeo (수저), a long-handled spoon and flat steel chopsticks, next to a box of thin paper napkins. Whoever sits closest opens it, lays a napkin at each place, and sets a spoon and a pair of chopsticks on top.

수저는 테이블 옆 서랍에 있습니다.

Water is self-service

A sign on the wall often reads mul-eun selpeu (물은 셀프), meaning the water is yours to fetch. One person gets up, takes a cold bottle and a stack of steel cups from the cooler, and fills everyone else's cup before their own.

In many places the same corner holds a self-serve bar for extra banchan (반찬), the small side dishes. The custom there is to take only what you will finish.

The table is set by the people who eat at it.

Who reaches first

Among Koreans the task often falls to the youngest at the table, or simply to whoever moves fastest. Nobody expects it of a visitor, which is why it is noticed when you do it. Open the drawer before your host can, and the meal begins on a different footing.