Bibimbap

When I was in Hangzhou, every monday we would go to the korean restaurant around the corner of our university and get the monday night 10 kuai (~US$2) dolsot bibimbap special. Ironically, it's one of the things I miss most about China.

There are many korean restaurants in the US, but nothing I've had, has matched up to the one I had in China(it's hard to live up to your memory). Anyways, a few weeks ago, I made my version of bibimbap and I was surprised by how simple it is to make and how good it tasted. I did not have a heavy stone pot to heat it up in, but using a frying pan was almost as good.

You start out with cooking rice. In my case, the rice cooker does that for me. Then you need a meat base. I used leftover meat (chopped into little pieces) and made a marinade (~scallions, sesame seeds, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt & pepper) out of it.

Next steam whatever vegetables you would like in your bibimbap. My choice was severly limited as I was too lazy and only used what was at hand. I worked with carrots and sauteed some onions (because I love sauteed onions!).

When the rice is done, scoop it in a frying pan (you might want to spray the pan with a little oil because you want the rice to get crunchy and a bit brown) . Arrange your vegetables as well as the meat marinade on top of the rice, and crack an egg over it. Add some strips of seaweed and additional sesame seeds for decoration.

Don't worry about a runny egg, because before you eat the bibimbap, you stirr the rice so everything mixes together. As you mix, the egg will continue to cook.