Our Taste of Home: Bibimbap
By Sam Pak
A dish that I think of when I think of home is bibimbap (비빔밥). My family and I would eat it all the time when we were hungry but had nothing to eat. It’s also a good way to get rid of all your banchan (side dishes). Grandma would make this at the end of the week, and since she was so good at making side dishes, it tasted amazing. It’s the end of the week and I already know what to expect to eat when I get home. It’s none other than my mom’s homemade bibimbap (비빔밥). What once started as a complex dish gradually progressed to something more simple, yet still flavorful.
Traditional Bibimbap. Photo courtesy of futuredish.
If you’ve ever had bibimbap (비빔밥) before, you’re probably seen how fancy or vibrant the dish can be; but at our home, the dish has taken a more modest approach. I believe a lot of that is attributed to living in a traditional Korean household. In a typical Korean household, banchan (side dishes) are made within the first few days of the week. In Korean meals, we usually have certain components that make up the meal. From what my mom tells me, side dishes are generally there to balance out your meal. For instance if you are eating meat with rice, you want some type of vegetable to balance your diet. These side dishes are there to complement your overall meal. Therefore side dishes are almost always included with most Korean meals. Depending on each household, the side dishes can vary. Personally, my parents are both vegetarian, so we end up having a lot of veggies as our banchan (side dishes).This includes bean sprouts, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, cucumbers, carrots and fried eggs. Since my parents are vegetarian and I do still like eating meat, I find myself cooking more meals on my own. This has actually helped me in terms of my own cooking skill. There are quite a variety of banchan. For my family the 5 most used banchans are, blanched spinach (시금치 무침), kimchi (김치), bean sprouts (콩나물무침), fried tofu (두부조림), seasoned cucumbers (오이무침). Therefore, when my mom makes bibimbap, she uses all the leftover banchan at the end of the week and mixes them with rice, gochujang (chili pepper paste), and sesame oil to create a flavorful concoction.
Photo Courtesy of Love and Lemons Recipes
The soup we like to have on the side is called dwengjang jigae (된장찌개/soybean soup) which normally consists of soybean paste, radish, zucchini and tofu. The earthiness of the soup matches so well with the zestiness and spiciness of the bibimbap, it’s a combo we definitely recommend. My mother always says bibimbap reminds her of home, because it reminds her of the lessons learned growing up. Her mother or my grandma would always tell my mother to waste not and to share often. That’s a mantra my mom has always lived by and passed onto me. Bibimbap is an excellent reflection of that, because you aren’t wasting what’s leftover, rather you’re combining them to create something even better.
According to my mom, my grandma was such a passionate chef that she would create large amounts of food to share with the neighborhood. My mom told me the best part about those large amounts of food was that they were shared amongst everyone. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, good or bad. The main point was that we could all gather around and share that connection only a good meal can bring. That’s something my mom remembers from these traditional Korean dishes and it’s something that I’ll remember as well. Although most of us can’t guess the future, I can guarantee one thing in life, and that’s my mom’s homemade bibimbap on Sunday nights.