Homemade Bibimbap...Sort Of

Is there such a thing as a mail-order mom? If there is, I’ll take an Indian mom, a Thai mom, a Japanese mom, an Italian mom… Aw heck, I’ll just take one of every kind. I love my Mom dearly, and she’s a great cook, but she never shared the secrets of making curry or kimchi with me. She does not know how to make authentic dishes from around the world.

I have discovered the closest thing to a surrogate Korean mom I’m going to find. I call my new mom Yong’s Oriental Food Mart. She lives in a strip mall on Kirkwood Highway on the outskirts of Wilmington, Delaware. Yong’s is a small Korean market right next to an Asian gift store, and Kahl-Bee Korean restaurant. All three places are owned by the same people.

The best part about Mom's… um, Yong’s... is that the cooler is stocked with some of the same Korean food components that are served at the restaurant next door. They just pack up food like kimchi and spicy tofu that will be showing up in your meal at Kahl-Bee, and sell it at the market. All you have to do is pick up the components to a Korean meal and assemble the dish at home.Starting at top: seasoned mung bean sprouts, spicy tofu, seasoned cucumber (I made that one), sweet beans (I don't know their real name, but they're good), seasoned mustards, kimchi cabbage, seasoned fern stems.

I visit Young’s when I have a hankering for bibimbap at home. I just pick up assorted containers of already prepared vegetables and tofu, and all I have to do is make rice. Easy! The containers have enough vegetables to make a family-size meal, or feed a single person for days. Don’t forget to pick up a bottle of kochujang sauce to top off the bibimbap.

If you want to get all Martha-like and do it from scratch, you can start here. Since my Mom has never shown me the secrets of Korean food, I don’t even try.

Yong’s Oriental Food Mart, 2017 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, DE 19805, Phone: (302)994-4664