As with other foods, Korean sashimi is typically eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves. The ancestral love of beef does not historically make up the average Korean's daily diet, though. Fish and vegetables, fresh and preserved, and served with rice have been more common. As with many cultures, the long winters forced the people to devise ways of eating when fresh foods were not readily available. Chopsticks and spoons are the eating utensils, except for fingers which are used for eating sushi, barbecue, and foods wrapped in lettuce.
Dinner is the main meal with lighter meals for breakfast and lunch.
Some variety of kim chee is present at all of them, as is rice. Besides rice, noodles are a favorite starch and may be served by themselves or in large bowls of soup. Korean ginseng root, native to the land and now cultivated heavily for export, is believed to have medicinal properties and may served as tea, or fresh with honey or cooked in other dishes. A fun and easy communal meal is the hotpot, or sin sul lo. Translations from Korean to English can vary drastically, largely because their range of a consonant's sound is broader than ours and their phonetic alphabet translates differently.