bibim me up, Scotty

What if I used keto orzo as the base of a keto bibimbap? I had just eaten bibimbap this past Wednesday during my trip to the National Museum. I knew I didn't have the proper veggies in my fridge, but I could get some from the grocery downstairs in my building. So I went shopping Friday night and found only some of what I needed: finding prepped fernbrake root (고사리 나물/gosari namul) was hard, as was finding prepped bellflower root (도라지 무침/doraji muchim), so I made do with what I could find. I knew I didn't want to buy soybean sprouts (콩나물/kong namul) because even the small grocery downstairs sells huge bags of the stuff, and I knew that most of it would go unused after today. I also couldn't find any oi-muchim (pickled, spicy, sliced cucumbers), and by that point, I had soured on the idea of buying any zucchini (애호박/ae-hobak), so I pretty much relied on the old saying that bibimbap uses whatever you've got access to (which isn't entirely true these days: there are several orthodox ways of making the dish). This meant I would be making a radically untraditional bibimbap, but there we were. What follows might be an abomination, but it was edible. Here's a more orthodox bibimbap.

keto orzo from lupin flour, first into the huge bowl

Over-easy egg on top. Conspicuously missing: green stuff like spinach, cukes, zucchini, and scallions

What ingredients did make it into my idiosyncratic version of bibimbap (which isn't even really bap/rice when you think about it)? Above, you see oyster mushrooms (느타리 버섯/neutari beoseot, about 1 o'clock), lotus root (연근/yeon-geun, about 3 o'clock), vegetable tofu (야채두부/yachae dubu, about 6:30, in disks), carrots (단근/dangeun, 7-9 o'clock), kimchi (김치, 10 and 12 o'clock), and radish (쌈무/ssam-mu, 11 o'clock). Not visible and probably under the egg: shredded pork 장조림/jangjorim. My store stopped selling the beef eye-round (홍두깨살/hongduggae-sal) version.

with gochujang (chili sauce)

with black sesame seeds (참깨씨/chamgae-ssi)

all mixed up with the faux rice clearly visible

Next time I try this, I'm going to make an effort to round up all the proper vegetables. The keto orzo definitely threw the flavor profile off. In fact, I wonder if it might not be better, next time, to use riced cauliflower or riced cabbage as my "rice." I've done that at least twice before with keto fried rice, and it worked great. Anyway, today's bibimbap did not help me to relive the carby bibimbap I'd had this past Wednesday. Ah, well. Better luck next time.