Traditional Korean cooking in your home kitchen

Seven months in, it’s safe to say that the challenges of the pandemic have been many. You don’t need me to detail them all here. But in the shadows of the struggles that have gotten most of the attention, there have still been small slivers of positive progress that inspire. Here at Zingerman’s, new products like Zinglish Muffins at the Bakehouse, Goat Brie at the Creamery, the Deli’s Reuben Tour, ZingTrain’s new master class series, the Fried Chicken Sandwich at the Roadhouse, and more have all come on board during the last five or six months.

At Miss Kim, Ji Hye and crew have moved quickly too—adding sauces, dressings, and meal kits to the daily mix. The latter have been particularly popular. Boxes of ingredients that you can quickly assemble at home and bring a little of the aroma and flavor of eating out at Miss Kim to your abode.

The biggest selling of the Miss Kim kits has been this awesome Bibimbob package. Here’s what Ji Hye had to say:

Before the March shut down, our stone bowl bibimbob was one of the most popular dishes at Miss Kim. We’ve had bibimbob in various iterations since we opened, but I was really liking the ones we had in early March. I’ve studied up on regional cooking in Korea, as well as Korean Buddhist cuisine. There were four different regional bibimbob on our menu, and I felt proud of them. Each offered unique flavors and stories, and they were so pretty to look at. There was a Jeonju bibimbob with beef tartare, and a North Korean-inspired one with pork belly, a mountain side bibimbob with potatoes. I found bibimbob a good microcosm of each region it represented. By serving them with local vegetables I felt like I was creating a kind of Korean food here in Michigan. I loved the drama of bringing them out all hot and crackling to the common table in the middle of our dining room, with guests oohing and aahing with their arrival. The warmth of the hot bibimbob and the aroma of sesame was intoxicating. There is nothing like a sizzling stone bowl full of deliciousness when the weather is chilly outside.

And then here we are. Seven months into the pandemic and we are still not doing indoor dining, and for now sticking to serving in compostable containers. We streamlined the menu, so while our guests still have options, the bibimbob is less of regional nature. I’ve been thinking though. There is no rule against sending a little of that warmth and conviviality home with our guests. We just need to get creative.

Enter our new bibimbob meal kit. The basic kit has our sesame rice, soft boiled eggs, banchan vegetables, gochujang sauce, and sesame seeds and scallions for garnish. Then you can add whatever that strikes your fancy! Tender roasted pork belly, garlicky grilled chicken, roasted mushrooms, soft braised tofu, potatoes for extra heartiness, even kimchi. Here’s what I do: I get the basic kit with mushrooms and a protein of my choice. I definitely make sure I add potatoes and napa cabbage kimchi. Once I’m home, I break out my favorite cast iron pan. Lightly oil the pan, place the rice in a thin layer, place my proteins next to the rice. Slowly warm it up for a little bit until the rice starts getting crispy, then I add the banchan vegetables, soft cooked eggs. Voila, present it to your family. Once appropriate numbers of pictures are taken for Instagram, then add the sauce and mix it all up for a warm hearty meal. Next day, add the leftovers and kimchi and turn it into kimchi fried rice! Two meals in one meal kit.

We miss you all a lot. My hope is that we’d bring a little bit of Miss Kim to your dining table with a hot sizzling cast iron pan standing in for a Korean stone bowl for your bibimbob. And when you choose your own bibimbob adventure, you’re creating your own Korean regional food, right on your table, right here in Michigan.

Order your Miss Kim Meal Kit today!