Stiring up a large version of bibimbap, the classic Korean rice and vegetable dish / Ssireum, a traditional Korean Wrestling competition
There are 24 Korean restaurants concentrated near the intersection of 149th Street and 41st Avenue in Flushing, Queens, and locals refer to the area as Muk Ja Gol Mok, or restaurant street. So merchants and civic leaders decided to organize a festival by that name on Saturday, and they hope to make it an annual event, said Kim Young Hwan, president of the Muk Ja Gol Mok association.
The event, the Inaugural Muk Ja Gol Mok Asian Festival, which was also organized by the Korean American Association of Queens(류제봉회장), drew about 10,000 visitors, according to The Korea Times.
The celebration featured dancing, music and even a Korean wrestling competition. But food took center stage at Muk Ja Gol Mok (sometimes spelled Meokjagolmok). In one area, restaurant workers made a giant version of bibimbap, the classic Korean rice-and-vegetable dish, this one serving about 600 people, according to Kwak Ja-Bun, president of the Korean Cuisine Globalization Committee and owner of Kang Suh Korean Restaurant, which sponsored the bibimbap.
The outsize dish had 12 ingredients and 2 sauces, which made for a colorful display.The ingredients were carrots, bellflower root, spinach, ground beef, bracken (a type of fiddlehead fern), squash, bean sprouts, mushrooms, eggs, red and green peppers, and rice.
It took five hours of cooking before it could be served to the crowd.
Chang W. Lee/ The New York Times
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/a-giant-bibimbap-at-a-korean-food-festival/?_r=0