A Giant Bibimbap at a Korean Food Festival
There are 24 Korean restaurants concentrated near the intersection of 149th Street and 41st Avenue in Flushing, Queens, and locals refer to the area as Muk Ja Gol Mok, or restaurant street. So merchants and civic leaders decided to organize a festival by that name on Saturday, and they hope to make it an annual event, said Kim Young Hwan, president of the Muk Ja Gol Mok association.
The event, the Inaugural Muk Ja Gol Mok Asian Festival, which was also organized by the Korean American Association of Queens, drew about 5,000 visitors, according to The Korea Times.
The celebration featured dancing, music and even a Korean wrestling competition. But food took center stage at Muk Ja Gol Mok (sometimes spelled Meokjagolmok). In one area, restaurant workers made a giant version of bibimbap, the classic Korean rice-and-vegetable dish, this one serving about 600 people, according to Kwak Ja-Bun, president of the Korean Cuisine Globalization Committee and owner of Kang Suh Korean Restaurant, which sponsored the bibimbap.
The outsize dish had 12 ingredients and 2 sauces, which made for a colorful display.The ingredients were carrots, bellflower root, spinach, ground beef, bracken (a type of fiddlehead fern), squash, bean sprouts, mushrooms, eggs, red and green peppers, and rice.
It took five hours of cooking before it could be served to the crowd.
Bibimbap: A Delicious Korean Dish You Don’t Want To Miss
As if Kimchi wasn’t already tantalizing enough, bibimbap is another notable, and tasty Korean cuisine. It’s a unique dish that is not only visually pleasing, but a satisfying meal as well.
Birth of Bibimbap: The dish is a descendant of Goldongban which is very similar to bibimbap. Bibimbap was created because of a tradition in Korean culture where people believed that the food which was leftover during New Year’s Eve was not suitable or fit to bring into the New Year. With this assumption, many people then decided to start combining ingredients in a bowl with rice.
Ingredients: The name of the dish means mixed rice; bibim meaning mixed and bap meaning rice. The dish includes steamed rice mixed with sautéed vegetables, a fried egg, and one’s choice of an assortment of meats. Additionally, a hot chili sauce to add some flavor is always added on the side. It’s called gochujang, and is known for having a thick, glossy texture.
Fun Facts: Once you are served a bowl of bibimbap, you should wait about one to two minutes so that you can allow for the rice to mix and mold together. There’s also no limit to the amount of chili sauce you would like to add. Add a lot or even a little, just make sure to take a spoon and give the bowl a nice hearty blend so that all the ingredients can mesh together, rewarding you with the best possible tasting experience. On top of that, there’s also a festival that goes on yearly in Korea called the Jeonju Bibimbap festival. The city itself is famous for the dish so it’s no wonder there’s a festival. There is also a cooking contest that visitors can partake in, as well as live music.
If you’re heading to Pyeongchang for the winter games courtesy of Cartan, make sure to go find a local spot that serves bibimbap for the best exeperience and even if you aren’t going, try bibimbap anyways because of it’s unique aesthetic and fantastic taste. Click here if you want to read more about another famous Korean dish, Kimchi!
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