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Taste Matthew Amster-Burton

Some Like It Hot

Korean dolsot bibimbap sizzles with fire and flavor

HOW MANY TIMES have you heard a waiter say, "Careful, those plates are hot"?

Oh, sure, they might be hot out of a dishwasher or broiler, but if you're at a Korean restaurant eating dolsot bibimbap, the bowls are hot enough to cause permanent injury. Hot enough to cause rice to sizzle and crisp up into a brown, crackly and irresistible layer. It takes awhile to eat a big bowl of bibimbap, and the bowl, which is typically made of granite half an inch thick, will still be hot when you're done.

But the dead-man's-curve aspect isn't dolsot bibimbap's only lure.

It's a variation on the already delicious standard bibimbap, which takes a large bowl of rice and tops it with marinated beef, assorted vegetables and a fried egg. Kochujang, Korean hot sauce, is always served on the side and applied liberally.

"In my family and among Korean-Americans there just is no occasion that people would get together without bibimbap," says Linda Sue Park, the author of "Bee-Bim-Bop," a rhyming picture book in which a girl helps her mother make dinner. "It's something that people eat when they're wanting to celebrate or have a good time with friends. It's served at weddings, it's served at family gatherings — it just seems to be attached in my mind to any time that a lot of Korean folks get together, as well as being a family meal."

Dolsot bibimbap adds the hot bowl and swaps out the fried egg for a raw egg, cracked on top just before serving. You squirt some hot sauce on and stir the bibimbap vigorously with a spoon. The heat of the bowl, conducted through the rice, cooks the egg. After a few minutes, you can peel the crisped rice away from the side of the bowl.

Unlike regular bibimbap, which is enjoyed in restaurants and homes, dolsot bibimbap is restaurant food. "I've got a couple of aunts who are very traditional Korean cooks," says Park, "but I don't think I've had it even at their house."

Normally I'm happy to let restaurant food thrive in its natural habitat. But something about dolsot bibimbap said, "Try me at home."

It may have been the potential for serious bodily harm. I have been known to envy people who have jobs with risks other than carpal tunnel or overeating. Also, it would require buying new equipment.

The stone bowls are available at any large Korean supermarket, such as the magnificent H Mart (31217 Pacific Highway S.) in Federal Way. H Mart is across the street from the equally magnificent Akasaka, a superb Korean restaurant, so you can have dinner, try the dolsot bibimbap, then head over to H Mart for stone bowls and other ingredients. H Mart also sells more than two dozen varieties of freshly made kimchi. If you're not headed to Federal Way, you can order stone bowls online from www.kgrocer.com. When you buy the bowls, look for bowls 8 inches in diameter, and prepare to pay $15 to $20 per bowl. Don't bother with lids, but do get the optional plastic heatproof trays.

Now that you have the stone bowls, the question becomes how to get them really hot. If you have a gas stove, you can simply set the bowl on the burner and crank it up. I don't have a gas stove, so I asked some friends for advice and one suggested I run the bowl through the self-cleaning cycle of the oven. The other friends jumped in with their self-cleaning horror stories. I played around with the broiler and got nowhere. I ended up at my friend Laurel's house, making use of her gas stove in exchange for free bibimbap.

"Now be careful," I said. "That bowl is hot."

Matthew Amster-Burton is a Seattle freelance writer. He can be reached at matthew.reviews@gmail.com. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at studio@barrywongphoto.com.

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