My Korean friend Jackie took my friend Lydia and I to Mee Dam, a Korean traditional restaurant, and it proved to be one of the highlights of her visit. This was to be no ordinary Korean culinary experience, for Jackie informed me that the food we were about to eat was the kind that Korean nobility once dined on. We slipped off our shoes and opened the sliding wooden door and stepped inside our private dining room. The table was in the center of the room and raised above the floor so that we westerners could unstretch our legs while we ate. We ordered beef bulgogi from one of several set menus as our main dish and sampled from the wide variety of panchan (side dishes) which came with it. Our server was a regal woman dressed in hanbok, the Korean traditional costume, who very quietly yet warmly served them to us.