Bibimbap (Mixed Rice with Namul)

Bibimbap means simply "mixed rice": warm rice with an array of side dishes stirred into it. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that scholars also called it goldongban, and that in the royal palace it was known just as bibim. The earliest written recipe is in the late-19th-century cookbook Siui jeonseo, which describes mixing rice with marinated and stir-fried beef, pan-fried fish slices, sautéed vegetables and crumbled fried kelp, dressing it generously with sesame salt and oil, and topping it with strips of egg and tiny meatballs.

Most writers believe the habit is far older than that recipe. The encyclopedia connects it to ancestral rites (jesa) and village rituals, after which participants shared the offerings — often in a single bowl, mixing rice with the ritual dishes so that everyone ate a little of each. Households that still hold rites keep this custom, and in Jinju a bibimbap eaten late at night is called heotjesatbap, a "mock ritual meal." Two other customs point the same way: on the last night of the lunar year, leftover side dishes were mixed into rice so they would not be carried into the new year, and in farming season women carried rice and big gourds of namul out to the fields, where workers mixed their own bowls with chili paste. See jesa food.

Bibimbap is, at heart, a way of eating namul. The encyclopedia is specific that the vegetables must be cooked — boiled and dressed, blanched and stir-fried, or salted and then stir-fried — never raw. Spinach, soybean sprouts, bracken, bellflower root and zucchini are each seasoned separately, exactly as they would be for the banchan table (sigeumchi-namul, kongnamul-muchim, gosari-namul, aehobak-namul), so that when enough of them meet in one bowl little extra seasoning is needed. Chili paste stir-fried with a little water (yak-gochujang) and sesame oil are traditionally served on the side so each person can adjust the heat.

Jeonju is now the city most associated with the dish, but the Korean Food Promotion Institute points out that a 1929 issue of the magazine Byeolgeongon named Jinju as the place for bibimbap and praised Jeonju instead for its soybean-sprout soup with rice, suggesting Jeonju's reputation for bibimbap took hold later. Today the Jeonju style is defined by soybean sprouts, rice cooked in beef broth and yellow mung-bean jelly. See cooking bap and blanching and seasoning namul.

• Many vegetables in one bowl: a typical serving combines four or five kinds of namul, so it carries the fiber, vitamin K, vitamin A (as beta-carotene) and folate of leafy greens, sprouts and carrots.
• Balanced plate: rice, vegetables, a modest portion of beef and an egg make it close to a complete meal on its own, the idea behind the balanced Korean meal.
• Adjustable at the table: because the chili paste and sesame oil are served separately, each person controls how much salt, sugar and fat goes into the bowl.

• Jeonju bibimbap (Jeonju): also called kongnamul-bibimbap. The encyclopedia counts some 30 ingredients, with soybean sprouts, hwangpo-muk (mung-bean jelly tinted yellow with gardenia), chili paste, beef tartare (yukhoe) or stir-fried beef, sesame oil and egg the defining ones. The rice is cooked in skimmed beef-brisket broth and tossed with sesame oil while hot, and the bowl is always served with soybean-sprout soup.
• Jinju bibimbap (Gyeongsang): namul kneaded long and hard, then topped with botangguk, minced clams simmered in sesame oil, along with beef tartare and mung-bean jelly; the Korean Food Promotion Institute links it closely to ancestral-rite meals.
• Haeju bibimbap (Hwanghae): according to a North Korean folklore book cited by the institute, made with bracken from Suyangsan and crumbled toasted laver.
• Home bibimbap: leftover namul, a fried egg and a spoonful of chili paste on rice — the everyday form, with no fixed recipe.
• Dolsot bibimbap: served in a heated stone pot so the bottom layer of rice turns crisp.