The table is her own, purchased in a downtown Kangnung shop. These tables are a Korean specialty, and you can pay a fortune for them in the tourist traps of Itaewon in Seoul. Or you can wander the back alleys until you find little family-run shops that sell almost the same item. The carvings aren't as finely worked, and the lacquer finish may not be quite as smooth, but the price is about a quarter of the high-end stuff.

Before you leave this page, look closely at those dishes. They're not disposable plastic. OK, they're plastic, but they're not cheap, thin throwaways. These are about the same as the ones you'd use in some of the family restaurants. It makes takeout a lot nicer - certainly a lot classier.

You don't chuck these dishes in the trash. When you're done with them, you leave them outside your apartment door, as if you'd ordered from hotel room service. The restaurant that delivered to your home comes back later to pick up the dishes and wash them for someone else to use next time.