Making Bomdong Bibimbap, a Korean Trend, with Red Leaf Lettuce

According to Ryuji's explanation, bomdong is a Korean vegetable similar to napa cabbage. In Korea, it's apparently trendy to toss this tender cabbage into kimchi on the spot and put it on top of bibimbap. Partly because A-ko kept saying they wanted to eat it, Ryuji decided to try jumping on this trend.

However, bomdong isn't distributed in Japan, and you won't see it in supermarkets. So Ryuji uses red leaf lettuce, which is said to be similar. After mentioning that things like sangchu lettuce are apparently also suitable, Ryuji makes a simple kimchi with red leaf lettuce this time and turns it into bibimbap.

Ryuji also touched on the fact that this recipe is being introduced online as a "diet meal." In reality, you eat rice with it and use sesame oil, so it's not a diet meal, and Ryuji asks viewers not to be fooled by that kind of information.

The ingredients are for 2 servings: mixed ground beef and pork, eggs, rice, and red leaf lettuce. Mushrooms were also prepared for the side soup.

One head of red leaf lettuce weighed about 300 g. That's too much for this recipe, so half is used; 150–160 g is enough, according to Ryuji. The rest can go toward salads and the like.

According to Ryuji, red leaf lettuce has a surprising amount of dirt caught in it. So it needs to be washed in water, and it's good to tear it by hand while washing. Ryuji mentioned this was something they did often back when working in restaurants. Since the dirt should be removed thoroughly, it's washed twice.

For draining, Ryuji recommends a salad spinner. When you spin it, a surprising amount of water comes out, and if that water gets into the rice, it turns soggy. It's better to spin it about twice, and if you don't have a spinner, drain it well in a colander.

This lettuce is used to make a fresh kimchi similar to a quick pickle. Ideally you'd have Korean chili pepper, but since Ryuji doesn't have any at home, the sauce is put together with seasonings on hand. The sauce also doubles as the bibimbap sauce.

• Gochujang: 2 1/2 tablespoons (35 g). The gochujang used this time is on the spicy side, so the seasoning ends up spicy
• Sugar: 1 teaspoon. Adds sweetness, following the same idea as bibimbap sauce
• Soy sauce: 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons
• Ground sesame seeds: 1 1/2 tablespoons. A generous amount; the sesame aroma goes well with it
• Umami seasoning: 6 shakes. Added because it's often included in Japanese kimchi
• Ichimi chili pepper: 1 teaspoon. The source of the heat; since it's for 2 servings, it's better to add about this much
• Vinegar: 2 teaspoons
• Sesame oil: 1 tablespoon. For aroma
• Salt: a pinch
• Garlic: 8–10 g. About 1 clove if it's the large domestic kind Ryuji has been buying lately, or about 2 cloves if they're small. Ryuji says it's better to include it, since both kimchi and bibimbap have a garlic aroma

Regarding the vinegar, someone asked whether it was a substitute for the sourness from fermentation, and Ryuji agreed. Once mixed, it gave off an aroma typical of Korean cooking.

An important point is the timing of adding the lettuce to the sauce. If you add it first and let it sit, water comes out of the lettuce and it loses its crispness. So Ryuji explained that it's best to toss it at the very end, around the time you're heating the rice.

The bibimbap alone works as a meal, but since it's better to have a soup, Ryuji makes a mushroom soup. Ryuji's T-shirt was from Hokuto, and it also came up that Hokuto had sent them mushrooms, so Ryuji wanted to use up the mushrooms at home.

The water is 550 ml. There was also a moment where Ryuji corrected themselves to say it's important to start the mushrooms in cold water, since that draws out their umami well. 100 g of oyster mushrooms are torn by hand and added. Any mushrooms you like are fine, and since Ryuji doesn't want to use a knife, ones that can be torn by hand are good. Ryuji considered adding king oyster mushrooms too, but settled on just the 100 g of oyster mushrooms.

The seasoning is fish sauce. Previously, after a certain shoot, the staff went out to eat completely exhausted, and at the restaurant, there was a lot of fish sauce set out on the tables. They had khao man gai, but this fish sauce was tastier than the sauce that came with it, and everyone was pouring it on like crazy. That fish sauce was "Tiparos," which was explained to be made only from anchovies, salt, and sugar, with no fishy smell. A-ko described themselves as "more of a fish sauce hater, if anything," but rated this one as something else entirely. Incidentally, Takao hadn't been invited to that dinner, and got a laugh by joking, "They kind of hate me a little."

Ryuji ordered it from Amazon right afterward. It comes in a 700 ml bottle, and as Ryuji remembers, it cost less than 1,000 yen. Until then, Ryuji often used the fish sauce with the scale logo, which is also sold at Kaldi, but Tiparos apparently isn't available at Kaldi. When they asked the restaurant staff about it because it was so good, the staff showed them the bottle. It apparently keeps for about a year and a half.

The soup is seasoned with 5 teaspoons of fish sauce, 2 shakes of pepper, and a little sesame oil. No umami seasoning is used. Ryuji says chicken stock isn't needed, since it's delicious with just the mushrooms' umami and the fish sauce. However, Ryuji also added that if the fish sauce you have at home is low in umami, it's better to add a little chicken stock. Finally, chopped green onion is added for color and aroma. Ryuji rated this fish sauce as "making my list of best buys this year," and said they've been using it so much they're like a fish that's found water. Ryuji also acknowledged that it sounds like an advertisement, and emphasized that they're not being paid and just want to introduce it because it's genuinely delicious.

Since bibimbap uses beef, Ryuji says mixed ground beef and pork is good for the meat. The plan was about 140 g, but 150 g went in, and Ryuji used it as is. Since the sauce provides the flavor, the meat is simply seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked without oil, treated almost like a topping.

Ryuji first made a test version with pork belly. The pork belly version was plenty tasty, but Ryuji thought ground meat might be even better, so this time they switched to ground meat and fine-tuned the whole recipe. A-ko had only eaten the pork belly version and said it was already quite delicious at that stage.

Browning the ground meat well brings out a toasty flavor. Ground beef and pork sold in Japan releases about this much fat, so there's no need to worry about it. The salt is a little on the strong side so that the meat has solid flavor even when eaten on its own. Ryuji says it's also a way to use up leftover ground meat.

The rice is 400 g for 2 servings. It's heated in the microwave and put directly into the frying pan with the meat pushed to one side. The reason is that in Korea, metal bowls are sometimes used. At this point, the rice and toppings aren't mixed. When someone said they thought it would be mixed, Ryuji replied half-jokingly, "Because for YouTubers, the thumbnail is important," while explaining that at restaurants, too, bibimbap isn't mixed at first; it's something the person eating it mixes.

While the rice is heating, the lettuce and sauce are tossed together in a bowl. Tossing by hand mixes it better. Once tossed, the volume shrinks considerably, and after tasting it, Ryuji said it had a seasoning like kimchi that's strongly flavored and a little sour.

Fried eggs are made in the fat left over from cooking the meat. The amount is 2 eggs, but if you love eggs, 3 is fine too, Ryuji says. Cook them to your liking; runny yolks are delicious.

The meat, lettuce, and fried eggs are placed on top of the rice in the frying pan, and it's finished with a light sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and, if you have it, chili oil. A knife wasn't used even once this time, and the lettuce was simply torn by hand. Ryuji cited this as what makes it easy, adding that even they, hungover, were able to make it.

After mixing everything well and tasting it, the members kept saying "Delicious." The consensus was that the ground meat version was better, and Ryuji also said, "It's way better than when I made the test version." A-ko said this was something they'd long been hoping for, and strongly recommended making it with ground meat rather than pork belly, no question, saying it's many times better and completely different.

The texture of the red leaf lettuce was also highly praised. It's crisp and kimchi-like, with the leafy parts wilted and the stem parts crunchy, and that contrast keeps you from getting tired of it. Ryuji explained again that kimchi is normally made by pickling it over and over, but since bomdong is a tender vegetable, it can be made instantly, and that's the distinctive feature of this dish. There was also the impression that it has a strong freshness and is lighter than regular bibimbap. As for why, Ryuji speculated that it may be because of the vinegar.

As for oil, Ryuji said it's surprisingly little, since it's 1 tablespoon of sesame oil for 2 servings. Ryuji limited it to saying that with plenty of lettuce in it, it does make you feel healthy, which doesn't contradict the earlier point that "it's not a diet meal." Asked where it would rank among past recipes, Ryuji answered, "Pretty high up." Ryuji had shot and eaten another video before this shoot, but was still able to finish everything.

In comparison with regular bibimbap, the minimal effort was emphasized. Regular bibimbap requires making several kinds of namul, but this is overwhelmingly easier, Ryuji says.

The fish sauce soup was also well received. Someone said there's no need for dashi, and Ryuji said they feel this fish sauce has about twice the umami of other fish sauces. It was also judged to pair well with the bomdong bibimbap. Ryuji also said that while it has less umami than a typical soup, you can taste its natural umami, and adding one more type of mushroom would make it a soup with strong umami.

At the end of the meal, the conversation turned to wanting viewers to make this combination too, and whether more recipes using Tiparos should be released in the future. The video ends with everyone cleaning their plates, and Ryuji encourages viewers to try making bomdong bibimbap with in-season red leaf lettuce.