Who knew when you enjoy a delicious and healthy steaming bowl of black rice, steak, vegetables, and flavorful Korean sauces that you were getting so much more. Bibigo restaurant, with two Westside locations, features Korean cuisine served in a fast causal setting with centuries of tradition and culture behind the dishes.
Bibigo offers menu items that incorporate the Korean philosophy of food wherein the five elements and the order of the universe are represented in the ingredients and how they are combined and served. The five colors of ingredients that are presented on a traditional dinner table are in the forms of rice, soup, and side dishes that remind us to seek aesthetic harmony and balance in our meals.
The blend of colors, flavors, and nutrients created by the combination of the dishes can also be experienced in a single bowl of bibimbap, which is the perfect combination of carbs, fiber, and proteins with rice, greens, meat, and the very important ingredient of fermented paste.
Popular entrees include Steak Bibimbap, which combines marinated and grilled prime rib placed on top of the bibimbap, served in a hot dolsot (stone bowl) designed to stay warm throughout the meal.
For those who are more adventurous, Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice combines 30-day aged kimchi – a traditional side dish, marinated chicken, onion, zucchini, maitake mushroom, bean sprouts, spinach, seaweed, and topped with a fried egg.
For vegetarians there are plenty of offerings such as the Spicy Rice & Noodle dish of rice noodles, spinach, bean sprouts, Portobello, mushrooms, and spicy soy sauce.
The bowls are set in the middle of the table for all to share, reflecting the Korean value of a collective lifestyle, passed down from a tradition in which both royals and commoners shared bowls and memories and intermingled and bonded over food on special days.
For those who want to create these types of dishes at home, Bibigo offers Korean BBQ Sauces in the grocery store in the varieties of Original, Pineapple and Hot & Spicy, perfect for an East-meets-West marinade for the grill or in stir-fry recipes.
Diners are likely to simply savor the fresh and flavorful dishes without further thought to the 5,000 years that went into creating them, but the ancient Korean secret is that along with a delicious and nutritious meal that those who partake are also getting a daily dose of balance.
Bibigo features locations in Westwood (1091 Broxton Avenue) and Westfield Century City (10252 Santa Monica Boulevard).
For more information, visit us.bibigo.com.
