b.b.go

Can Center City sustain two fast food-style Korean restaurants within mere blocks of each other? Giwa, the hugely popular Korean joint that opened in 2006 on Sansom St., now has competition from the newly opened b.b.go on the corner of 18th and Ludlow. Or does it?

b.b.go dubbs itself as a "fusion rice bar, " and serves a limited menu of rice-based Korean dishes. Bibimbap and Dubbap are the two main offerings, with each dish having a handful of variations depending on desired ingredients — tofu, chicken, beef, pork, etc. Also on the menu are pajeon, japchae, dukbokgi, and gimbap.My main reason for visiting b.b.go was to eat gimbap, Korea's answer to sushi and an answer that I actually prefer to Japanese sushi, but have difficulty finding in Philly. b.b.go's menu lists beef or tuna gimbap, but I thought I'd ask if they had veggie gimbap. At noon, only an hour after opening and before any sort of lunch rush had started, b.b.go told me they had sold out of the two orders of veggie gimbap they had made (if I am to believe that they even made a veggie version), and, apparently, had no interest in making me any.
Unlike at Giwa where you can order bibimbap cold or in a hot stone pot, at b.b.go cold is your only option. Your choice of brown or white rice is topped with various vegetables in the case of the vegetable bibimbap or the tofu bibimbap, and a fried egg upon request.

Zuchinni, mung bean sprouts, carrots, lettuce, daikon, spinach, and silken tofu topped this bowl. With the exception of the pickled daikon, all of the vegetables were plain — but fresh! — and the tofu was unseasoned. I prefer more pickled and fermented vegetables on my bibimbap. Perhaps the heacho bibimbap with seasoned seaweeds would have suited me better.

Kochujang, a spicy pepper sauce, is squirted on top by the server only upon request, and if you want more, you'll need to get up from your table and squirt some more from the couple of kochujang bottles sitting on the ledge with the utensils and napkins.
The accompanying miso soup is mild and innocuous.The accompanying kimchee is spicy, but, as far as kimchee goes, this is mild stuff.Tofu dubbap with mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, and onions is nicely spiced (I asked for medium), but is also sweet and saucy. This is actually how I would like my cheap Chinese take-out to taste, but not my Korean food. The accompanying salad of iceberg and sliced radishes with Italian dressing was an unpleasant mystery.

b.b.go currently has an off-the-menu bento lunch deal that will get you most of the way around the small menu, and then you can decide for yourself which fast food Korean restaurant is tops — Giwa or b.b.go?

b.b.go
20 S. 18th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-569-8600
Mon-Fri: 11am-9pm
Sat: noon-8pm
Sun: closed

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

Giwa

Sometimes (sometimes) I’m jealous of salaried desk jockeys that get to take lunch breaks. I don’t get paid when I’m not working, so eat a PB&J with one hand, and work with the other hand five days out of the week. I’d love to eat something more exotic for lunch, so, when I had a day off a while back, I joined my partner for a rare lunch date at Giwa. Giwa is a Center City Korean joint on the 1600 block of Sansom Street that serves “simple, good Korean food.”

During the lunch hour rush, the place is packed. Look past these people and you’ll see a clean and modern interior with stone veneer walls, small glossy tables, and narrow counters along the wall and the prep area. The space feels like a trendy Korean fast food restaurant, and that’s what I’d call it – the food is even served on those familiar orange trays.

The menu is limited to a handful of appetizers, soups, and entrees; not nearly as many options as you would get at most Korean restaurants. I’m sure the limited menu helps facilitate a speedy lunch that desk jockeys demand. Also, don’t expect a plethora of complimentary banchan (small Korean side dishes) that you normally get at more formal sit down restaurants. There’s no way to eat a speedy lunch if you have ten side dishes. Plus, they wouldn’t fit on the orange tray!

My favorite appetizer, kimbap, was not on the menu. Kimbap is Korean sushi – thinly sliced rolls filled with pickled daikon, spinach, carrots, and egg. Why it’s not on the menu, I don’t know.

My favorite entree, bibimbap, was on the menu. Bibimbap is basically a large bowl of rice with many types of vegetables, meat, and a fried egg on top. This all ends up getting eaten mixed together with kimchi, and kochujang sauce – a spicy, ketchup-like condiment. For $8.50, I ordered the vegetarian bibimbap without an egg, instead of the $9.50 bibimbap with tofu.

The rice bowl came out topped with cabbage, carrots, lettuce, red peppers, seasoned greens, seasoned mushrooms, and shredded nori. Kimchi, kochujang, and seasoned mung bean sprouts were on the side. The vegetables were fresh, but either not seasoned or lightly seasoned. Where were the more exotic fern stems, pickled daikon, and other pickled or fermented vegetables I normally get at Korean restaurants? I felt like Giwa’s bibimbap had been dumbed-down for the masses.

I dumped the kimchi, bean sprouts, and hot sauce in the bowl, then shoveled the rice and vegetable mixture in my mouth. It was “simple, good Korean food,” even if it was not the most authentic bibimbap I’ve ever had. If I could get paid to take a lunch break, I’d be back for my Korean fast food fix.

Giwa, 1608 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, 215-557-9830
Mon.-Fri., 11am-8pm; Sat., 12pm-9:30pm; Sun., closed.