Top 5 Places To Enjoy Authentic Bibimbap In Jeonju, South Korea

Think South Korean food, and bibimbap will be one of the top dishes that come to mind. Made of rice, vegetables, meat, egg and chilli paste, which are stirred together before eating, the name of the dish comes from the term bibim, which means "mixing," and bap, which means "cooked rice." Jeonju, a city in the west of the country, is renowned for its version of bibimbap, which, rumour has it, will enable you to live for a century. It is said that a resident named Kim Saengwon loved bibimbap so much that he consumed the dish regularly and maintained such good health that he lived for over 100 years without illness. This reputation made Jeonju bibimbap famous far and wide, attracting visitors who would come just to eat it, earning it the nickname of baek-se-bap (century rice). In May 2012, Jeonju was chosen as a Creative City for Gastronomy as part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, an honour recognising the city's traditional home cooking handed down over thousands of years.