Despite a fierce doggedness about eating local food on foreign soil, my first visit to a Korean restaurant on a back street in Seoul wasn’t, I must confess, without the inevitable crumb of apprehension. Blame it on the narratives galore of some not-for-the-squeamish victuals in this part of the globe!

Move and pick A quick survey of the culinary highlights on offer, and Bibimbap emerges the clear winner. The elucidation – a bowl of rice topped with vegetables, meat and gochujang (chilli-pepper paste).

Much pointing and gesturing to the maitre-d’ follows, crossing of arms to convey ‘no beef please’ and a vigorous nod when he pointed questioningly to a picture of shrimps, and I was, as they say, sorted. Beef and pork are the meats of choice in South Korea.

Sea food is ubiquitous, but chicken comes lower down the preference list.

Palate pleaser What appears soon is an evocative assembly; a stone bowl holding the main dish, sizzling away to high glory; and an assortment of ceramic bowls holding the accoutrements like radish and cabbage kimchi (a fermented salad) and some other small eats.

A larger bowl of piping hot vegetable stew and a bottle of sesame oil completes the culinary orchestra.

A closer look at the “sizzler” reveals a bowl half full of sticky brownish rice; sitting neatly around its periphery are spoonfuls of sauteed spinach, julienned carrots, minced mushrooms, a feathery mass of radish sprouts, and shrimps, pink with freshness. The centre is occupied by a crimson gash which is the aforementioned chilly paste.

The best way to get started is to drizzle some sesame oil on the contents of the bowl, and for every morsel, mix the various ingredients on the palette to individual taste.

Guilty pleasures The rice is soft on the upper side and crispy on the underside, some avatar of pan fried rice if you will; replete with possible permutations and combinations of bland, spicy, soft and crunchy the eating experience is scrumptious to the last grain. Bibimbap, I soon discover, is Korea’s signature dish. In tandem with kimchi, its national dish and the country’s contribution to global cuisine, fears of a gastronomic black-out in this part of the world recede rapidly.

The third member to the elite culinary club, I learn, is Bulgogi, grilled, marinated beef that a readers’ poll has listed as being 23rd amongst the 50 most delicious foods worldwide.

Dak Bulgogi is the variant using chicken as the meat. This will be my next stop on the Bibimbap trail!

The writer was in Seoul at the invitation of Hyundai Construction Equipment India

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