For hydration, there is water flavored with pandanus leaf, which tastes pleasantly of toasted rice, and fruit-flavored drinking vinegars, which, mixed with seltzer, are like sweet-and-sour sodas.

NEWYORKER: Pok Pok Ny

There would also be a soup, usually made of spinach or watercress or bamboo shoots mixed with dried shrimp, tofu, or egg drops, or even rice crust.

NEWYORKER: The House Behind a Weeping Cherry

Jung Sik Dang combines ingenuity and impeccable form, turning out dishes like a bowl of tomato jelly, basil sorbet and fresh vegetables, all mixed together at the table in a modern spin on bibimbap (a traditional dish of rice, vegetables, meat and chilli paste, which are stirred together right before eating).

BBC: Korean food goes high-end in Seoul