Put together a large bowl of rice, namul or sautéed and seasoned
vegetables, beef and/or a fried egg; add chochujang or hot pepper paste;
mix well. And voilà! You have
bibimbap!
From personal experience, when people first encounter bibimbap.
They don’t really understand what to make of it. What is it? Why are you mixing
rice and seasoned vegetables together in a red sauce?
Well, let’s take it from the top, shall we? Bibimbap is and has
been a widely known and very loved dish by both young and old. It is a
signature and traditional Korean dish, but also a household dish as well. Like
most of Korean foods, bibimbap also has its fair share of variations. Depending
on where the person making bibimbap is from, the ingredients will be different.
But usually, the ingredients consist of rice, beef, spinach, mushrooms,
zuchchini, soybean or mung bean sprouts, gosari or bracken fern stems, mu or
Korean radish, and doraji or bellflower root, carrots, and a fried egg. And
these are topped off with some gim or dried seaweed.
Because of this diverse group of ingredients, bibimbap is a very
colorful dish. The vegetables are placed on top of the rice inside of the bowl.
Many chefs take caution in placing the vegetables so that the colors do not
clash and give off an aesthetic appeal to the person who is about to eat the
dish. Depending on where you are eating, the beef and the fried egg may be
placed along with the vegetables or on top. Some cut dried seaweed comes next.
And sesame seed oil always tops finishes off this dish. The gochujang sauce
comes separately so that the person eating may control how spicy he or she
wants to eat to eat the bibimbap. The sesame seed oil has a lovely, almost sweet
aroma that compliments the gochujang sauce and the ingredients.
The texture of bibimbap is hard to explain, but in a good way. It
encompasses almost every single texture out there. It is chewy, but not gum
chewy, and also crunchy, but not potato chip crunchy. It is quite hard to
explain. As far as the taste goes, it is an explosion. You have spiciness from
the sauce, saltiness and sweetness from the sautéed and seasoned vegetables
along with the beef.
You can find this dish in almost any Korean food place and
restaurant. Some Korean markets along with Trader Joe's sells the bibimbap
ingredients. I recently ate bibimbap at Bibigo located in the Westfield Century
City Centre food court. I got beef, broccoli, mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, and
Korean radish with gochujang sauce. But, you can choose from an array of
different vegetables and sources of protein. And it only cost $7.62.
So, if you’re in the mood for mixing a bowl of ingredients
together and experimenting how much spiciness you can take, then bibimbap is
right for you! Enjoy!
