dolsot bibimbap, or korean hotstone mixed rice is one of my favorite korean dishes and i like it for both its color & taste. despite not being the easiest thing to make (lots of chopping, boiling & frying), i think its worth the effort consider how good it is. theres virtually no difference between homemade and those from the eateries/restaurants so this is something i will never order when i'm out in korean restaurants. ingredients i used are carrot, japanese cucumber, large bean sprouts, chinese spinach, dried shiitake mushrooms, ground beef & korean hot pepper paste (gochujang). served on a bed of japanese rice of course!

from left : bibimbap all mixed up and right : the bulgogi marinade i used for the beef. traditionally a raw egg is cracked in the middle of the ingredients (like on the pic above) but thats not how i like to eat mine. i prefer mine with a sunny side up :D as for the bulgogi marinade, its really good. i got it from fairprice finest at $2.80 a bottle. with the marinade you can simply just saute some minced garlic, add in the beef, pour in some of the marinade together and u don't really need to add in other seasonings like sugar or soy sauce. i'm glad i bought it!

and finally, onto my 1st ever attempt on homemade kimchi. i must say i'm a big fan of korean side dishes (banchan) and albeit expensive, storebought kimchi hv always had a permanant place in my fridge. then it dawned on me that its about time i make my own coz homemade is like 1/10th the price of storebought! with a 1kg cabbage, you'll be able to make a large container of it which is enough to last you for weeks! definitely economical. unfortunately this isn't the best kimchi i've tasted. i don't like the graininess of the garlic and all but it does taste pretty authentic. i'm totally hooked on making my own korean food and i'm gonna make more banchan soon!

recipe for the bibimbap from here and kimchi here. do note that the recipe for the kimchi uses 10 pounds/4.5kg of napa cabbage (gasps!) so i scaled down and divided the ingredients by 4.