Bibim, to mix – Darlinghurst – Sydney [now closed]

Flying into Sydney around midday, we had until 8pm to kill some time. Karen hit our old favourite “Urban Spoon” and found us an amazing little joint in Darlinghurst to have lunch. ‘Bibim, to mix’ is a Korean cafe specialising in bowls of bibim-bap. Everyone knows what bibim-bap is right?? It apparently translates as ‘mixed rice’ and is made up of meat, veges and a few different varieties of rice, together with a few traditional side dishes. The idea is to mix it all up together with some mild chili sauce…and then let your tastebuds do their thing! We went for the ‘special’, which added an extra twist of a super hot stone bowl that all the food got thrown into. It gave a real crunch to the rice, kept the meal hot for ages, and created an extra stickiness to the sauce that wouldn’t otherwise have been there. The side dishes included some miso soup made from scratch, pickled Korean radish in a hot sauce, potato and a Korean egg omelette-y type thing. Really tasty!!

(somehow this amazing meal also managed to piss off the chick behind us so bad that she walked out on her partner…with the bloke trailing in her wake grovelling up a storm in a vain attempt to maintain conjugal rights….I’m sure it wasn’t the food, but it made for an interesting start to the holiday!)