I had the tastiest lunch today - a dol sot
bibimbap. I know that sounds like something a teletubbie would say but it is actually a delicious traditional Korean dish. I walked past the cafe of the same name on Greek St in Soho earlier today and thought "that looks new - what's going' on 'ere then"...or something like that. Reading the menu on the window I remembered having bibimbap at a Korean restauarant last year but had no recollection if I liked it or not. So back I trotted at lunchtime to try. The place is obviously super-new. The chairs and tables are spotless, the waiting stuff are really eager to please and my poor waiter kept getting whispered admonishments from the woman behind the counter about how to serve my drink and when to take my order. This was all actually really endearing and as I was one of only a few people in there I felt like I was one of their first customers. They also took a polaroid of me to put on the wall with others that looked like friends and family so if you go in soon you will see a grinning egg head amongst all the groovy Koreans. The bibimbap came in a stone bowl, which you are warned not to touch as it's
really hot (and it was, as I was shovelling the food into my mouth I accidentally touched it - ouch). It was a thing of beauty - cucumber, daikon (a mild Asian radish), bean sprouts, spinach, carrots and mooli (like a daikon) with a perfectly fried egg on top. Also provided were two brand new squeeze bottles of gochujang (fermented Korean chilli sauce) and some sort of bean sauce. It comes on a bed of rice - for 70p extra you could substitute nutty brown rice for the standard white (which I did). The waiter mixed everything together and I tucked in. Oh man - this was warm, glutinous, tasty, just hot enough, spicy
goodness. It was comfort in a bowl, I absolutely adored it and I literally ate every grain of rice in my bowl! You can add other things to your bibimbap - beef, pork, tofu etc but I am going to stick to this plain, healthy version because why would you mess with perfection? Seriously - go there, you will love it.
