The Cheop Count and the Order of the Bapsang

The bapsang (밥상), the table at which rice is the centre of the meal, took its settled form in the Joseon period (1392–1897), when the court and the yangban households gave the meal a fixed grammar. The count of side dishes, called cheop (첩), belongs to that grammar and is best known from the court table, the surasang, which was served to the king on a larger scale than any household table. The ordinary household bapsang rests on the same plan in a smaller form, and it is the form that Maangchi sets out in her book.

The cheop count is the number of side dishes set out with the rice, the soup and the stews. Rice, soup, kimchi and the sauces are not counted; they are the ground of the meal, and only the banchan (반찬) that stand beside them add to the number. A table of three cheop carries three side dishes, one of five carries five, and the counts rise through seven and nine to twelve, which is the number associated with the court. The lower counts belong to the household, and the higher ones were bound up with rank, so that the number laid on a table told something of the house that set it. The placing of the dishes follows a fixed order. Each diner has rice set to the left and soup to the right, so that the two lie nearest the hand, with the spoon and chopsticks to the right of the bowls. The shared dishes, the jjigae and the jeongol, stand toward the centre where all can reach them, and kimchi and the sauces are placed within easy reach. The banchan fill the space between, the dry and the seasoned dishes arranged so that the same kinds are not set side by side. The choice of banchan is made for balance rather than for display. A table usually combines a seasoned vegetable, called namul, with something grilled or braised, something fermented, and something pickled or fresh, so that the eater moves between them with each spoonful of rice. Maangchi's approach in the Big Book is that of the working household: a few dishes made well, kimchi always present, and the rest varied with the season and with what is at hand. The cheop count is understood there as a measure of the table's plan, not as a target to be reached each day. At the table the rice is the measure against which every other dish is judged, and the soup is taken between mouthfuls of it. The spoon is used for rice and soup and the chopsticks for the banchan, a division that is kept at the formal table. Dishes are shared from common plates, and each diner takes from the part nearest to them. The order of the bapsang is therefore a working arrangement, built so that a meal of many small dishes can be eaten without disorder, and it governs the other tables of the chapter, from the ancestral rite to the feast, each of which alters the count and the placing for its own purpose.

The bapsang is planned so that each spoonful of plain rice meets a different taste: the salt and sharpness of kimchi, the bitterness or sweetness of a namul, the savour of a braise or grill, and the warmth of the soup. No single banchan is meant to dominate, and the seasonings of the table, chiefly doenjang, ganjang, gochugaru, sesame oil and garlic, are varied from dish to dish so that the whole meal stays in balance.