How spoons became part of Korean culture

Few everyday objects appear as often in Korean expressions as the spoon. Among them are the instruction to “not lift your spoon before the eldest person at the table begins eating,” a well-known rule of dining etiquette, and the saying to “put one’s spoon on (the table),” a reference to placing your spoon on a meal that someone else has prepared, meant as a criticism of someone who jumps in at the last minute to take credit for someone else’s work. More recently, the terms “gold spoon” and “dirt