Even though Korea is a relatively small
country area wise, where it takes about 5-6 hours to go by bus from the North
to the South, Korea still hosts some regional differences. Be it political,
linguistic or culinary differences are all apparent still to this day. This
being a blog about Korean cuisine, I will focus on the latter here.
Coming to Jeonju for the first time I
refused to believe the hype and imagined that Jeonju bibimbap would taste
similar to the ones I have had up in Seoul. However, even before eating, it is
apparent that Jeonju makes good of its fame for side dishes. Accompanying the
sizzling bowl of bibimbap was a table set with 10 or more side dishes with
vegetables, mushrooms, different beans and sprouts and seafood. Now, for the
uninitiated customer this might be too much to swallow since eating these side
dishes is usually a case of trial-and-error. With such huge diversity, it is
unlikely you will enjoy every single one of the side dishes.
Now, for the actual bowl of bibimbap
itself, there is no golden rule on how a Jeonju bibimbap is made. Ingredients
might vary and some, for example, contain minced meat while others contain
strips of meat. The bowl of rice, vegetables, sprouts and whatnot is topped
with a raw egg which gets cooked thanks to the sizzling hot bowl while mixing
the whole dish. One difference I noticed from most Seoul bibimbaps is that in
Jeonju the bowl comes served with the red chili paste already in the bowl,
which makes it more difficult to decide the level of spicyness itself. All in
all, the Jeonju bibimbap, usually accompanied with a bowl of bean sprout broth,
makes it worth the travel to Jeonju.
