South Korea: Bibimbap for Kids

The Story

We went to the Inner Sunset farmers market on Sunday, and Bon Kimchi was selling 4 different kinds of kimchi, which is what inspired me to make this dish this week!

My family and I used to go to South Korea on the way to and from Japan and the U.S. when I was little. The best memories I have from South Korea are eating Korean BBQ, wrapped in lettuce (so good) and going to Lotte World. It was so much fun!

I made this dish based on the recipe here by Korean Bapsang.

 

Utensils and Ingredients We Didn’t Have

 

• Beef, rib eye or sirloin – As you may know, I don’t eat beef so we used chicken instead. Same marinade.
• Boiled goari – I am sure I could’ve found it in a nearby Korean market, but I just didn’t have time. Instead of this, I decided that the kimchi we bought (I know it’s totally different) would be the additional item on this bibimbop.
• Stone pot – Tony loves the stone pot bibimbop, so I fried the rice to make it crispy since we don’t have a stone pot. This worked out well. I used the same pan as what I cooked everything else with, so the rice had all the good flavors on it too!
• Rice – I used rice for the boys (Tony and Henry), but I ate mine without rice. I was going to use riced cauliflower, but the dish had so many veggies in it, I just increased the number of veggies in my bowl. Didn’t miss the rice at all. It was good!

• General note: I used one pan to cook all the veggies. I didn’t do the boil/blanch. I just cooked it (spinach, sprouts) in that one pan until wilted and rinsed in cold water. All about saving dishes!

Reviews

Emily (aka mama) – The Chef

[custom_blockquote style=”eg. green, yellow, purple, blue, red, black, grey”] Forgot to take a picture of my bowl. But as described above, it was the same as Tony’s, but no rice and extra of all the veggies and chicken. Basically, it was a bibimbap salad. So delicious.  [/custom_blockquote]

Tony  (aka dada) – Really Nice Taste Tester aka Husband of the Year

[custom_blockquote style=”eg. green, yellow, purple, blue, red, black, grey”] Loved it! The red bibimbap sauce and the yolky egg was what made this dish so good! [/custom_blockquote]

Henry – The picky “I analyze everything before I eat it” toddler

[custom_blockquote style=”eg. green, yellow, purple, blue, red, black, grey”] He ate all the rice and some carrots. And… chicken! I knew he would eat the rice but the chicken was a nice surprise. [/custom_blockquote]

Andrew – Sleeping Baby (We just couldn’t get it together before bedtime)

[custom_blockquote style=”eg. green, yellow, purple, blue, red, black, grey”] Zzzz…  [/custom_blockquote]

Chippy – Our cutest vacuum cleaner 

[custom_blockquote style=”eg. green, yellow, purple, blue, red, black, grey”] He got to eat Henry’s leftovers. He loved it even though he usually doesn’t like veggies. 🙂  [/custom_blockquote]

Are you from South Korea? What do you think? Do you think this was made authentically? Or did I miss a key ingredient/utensil?