Bap

While many delis carry a standard bi bim bap now (boiled rice with Korean vegetables and meat), the beauty of the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap is how the hot stone pot will sizzle everything that touches it, allowing you to mix up the rice into an almost fried rice-like concoction.

Pro “Deli” Loses the Bagel, Goes 100% Korean w/ Best New Bi Bim Bap | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2008

Bi Bim Bap is not a particularly tough dish to make.

Ambrosia (aka the best Bi Bim Bap in Midtown?) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

The Bi Bim Bap is good, and the Bento boxes looked fine, but the real star of the show is definitely the Bulgogi Box.

Korean Food @ Pro Hot Bagel (?!?!) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

Every other cheap, take out Bi Bim Bap is pre-packaged for convenience - so the egg is either non-existent, or fully cooked (thereby defeating the purpose of the egg entirely).

Ambrosia (aka the best Bi Bim Bap in Midtown?) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

Bi Bim Bap is basically a deconstructed Korean rice dish.

Ambrosia (aka the best Bi Bim Bap in Midtown?) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

At $6.95, the Bi Bim Bap is relatively cheap - and after geting an email from a tipster exclaiming its virtues, I decided to check it out.

Ambrosia (aka the best Bi Bim Bap in Midtown?) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

The Bi Bim Bap is obviously the fresh version (no option of having it served ina hot pot).

Korean Food at Cafe Duke | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2006

Bokum Bap is “fried rice”, so that’s a pretty literal translation from Japanese I guess.

Izakaya Moku is No Sake Bar Hagi (But It’s Good Enough For Me) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2010

They even have a Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, which is the same dish, served in a super hot stone pot, so that the white rice at the bottom gets crunchy - making it almost like a fried rice.

Ambrosia (aka the best Bi Bim Bap in Midtown?) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2007

The Benares branch of the sect is known as Bap (father) and the Kawardha branch as Mai

The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) Robert Vane Russell 1894