A PERFECT BOWL OF BIBIMBAP OR (K)SHIT(IJA’S) GUIDE TO HAPPINESS

According to Kshitija's note, one can find comfort in the most unexpected places or experience the best taste of a bowl of bibimbap when they need to escape reality. Escaping reality is the best way to stay happy. The further you are away from the reality, the happier you become.

Recipe

Preparation time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Cooking time: 3 minutes, 32 seconds.

Serves 1 in dire need of comfort.

Ingredients

1 Newly opened, crowded Korean restaurant with noisy people.

1 corner table with seven friends loudly discussing maths (trigonometric equation) and cinema.

1 teaspoon of awkward talk and feeling disconnected.

3 Staffs who doesn’t get the order right and 1 pretty staff in pink hair.

1 bowl of bibimbap, 1 plate of half-eaten tteokbokki, and untouched kkakdugi.

2 cup full of brimming anxiety.

A pinch of sadness and longing.

K-Pop songs (In the Morning, Alcohol Free, Winter Bear).

A dash of warmth from afar.

A pinch of happiness to taste.

Preparation

1. Before leaving, wash your hair with strawberry shampoo and put on the leave in conditioner. The smell would linger and your classmate would compliment your hair and you would smile.

2. Keep your words minimal and arrange your feelings and listen. This helps in filtering out unnecessary thoughts.

3. Prepare the conversation in the head for 15 minutes before entering the restaurant. This helps in avoiding uncomfortable silence.

Method

Step 1 - Marinate—soak the food in a seasoned liquid before cooking to tenderise it and enhance its flavour.

Find the corner seat and lean against the wall as the conversation unfolds. Laugh a bit and pause, soak in every word uttered, so when you speak you would sound perfect—a bit of you and a bit of their wisdom. But when the laughter and noise echoes, fix your gaze on the menu, focus on the font and reread the dessert section till it feels like you can taste the sweetness on your tongue.

Step 2 - Stir Fry—a Chinese cooking technique where you cook the food in high heat to make it crispy without getting burnt.

Stir in a fact or two about the food into the conversation. If they laugh, then smile, but if they ignore, then simmer thoughts that could lead to delightful conversation. There is a shift in conversation and everyone is talking about maths. Stir occasionally a nod or two and rest against the wall. The uneasiness would settle as the conversation gets louder and louder. Take a bite of bibimbap, but the taste would wash over the heated argument about trigonometric equations.

Step 3 – Blend—Gently combine two or more ingredients by hand, an electric mixer, or a blender. It adds flavour and texture and makes the food palatable.

Mix in a bit of awkwardness when silence gets loud and conversation reaches a dead end. Poke the bibimpap with chopsticks and count the sesame seeds. Thoughts would dissipate when everyone starts a discussion on Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave. You find yourself wrapped in an invisible bubble that floats around in the background, unable to blend with the conversation.

Step 4 – Broil—cook food under direct heat, like an upside-down grilling that brings flavour, colour, and crispiness to the food.

Heat everything—the awkwardness, the silence, the conversations and every single thought would get crushed halfway. The noise gets louder and louder and the entire room gets hotter, despite the cold air blasting from the AC. The pretty staff in pink hair would keep refilling the water and you keep eating bibimpap with a smile. It would taste the same, but with every bite, you could find a distraction.

Step 5 – Poach—it’s a slow moist heat cooking method and it involves submerging the food in a liquid and cooking it over low heat, allowing it to retain the moisture of the ingredients.

Everything around keeps simmering. The air gets thinner and you find yourself far away, unable to blend in. Every word uttered falls flat like a biscuit drowned in tea. Keep poking the tteokbokki, struggling to eat as the smell of kkakdugi seeps into the air. Under the clattering of chopsticks on plates and the never-ending discussion on Ladri di Bicicleta (Bicycle Thieves) you hear an unfamiliar song that draws your attention. 

Step 6 – Caramelise—to slow cook fruit, vegetable, or sugar until it’s brown and sweet. It changes the flavour and structure of food.

Let it melt to create a new flavourful compound. When the first song (In the Morning) plays, it fascinates you. You focus alters, the song grabs your undivided attention, when the next song (Alcohol Free) plays, you find something changing you to a molecular level. And when the third song (Winter Bear) is like the caramelised sugar, you find yourself becoming a completely new compound. It’s the 3 minutes, 32 seconds of the song that changes everything.

Even though the songs are foreign, it feels familiar, like a forgotten lullaby that put you to sleep. You follow the lyrics and every word feels like a blanket wrapped around you on a cold winter evening. Every note melts your anxious thoughts. There is so much warmth that the restaurant suddenly feels comforting and safe. The restaurant playlist shuffles and more K-pop songs plays—each unfamiliar and language foreign but carries the familiarity of a warm hug.

Step 7 – Garnish—to decorate the food to enhance the flavour and appearance without overpowering the dish.

Serve fresh and sprinkle in a lot more smile. With the newly found comfort, escape into a world of your own where every noise gets cancelled, every thought gets numbed, and the only thing you hear is the Winter Bear playing on loop. And when the new song plays, take a bite of bibimbap, it would taste better. Look around and the restaurant feels cosy and you smile.

Repeat the steps every time you want to taste happiness amidst the chaos.

Note: Ingredient Substitute or extra tip to survive

If K-pop songs don’t play while eating in a noisy restaurant, then find comfort in the food. Keep stuffing yourself with food. It helps in calming and distracting. The more you focus on food, the more you find yourself pulling away from the reality. And if the food doesn’t taste good, keep eating more till the taste feels familiar.