Bibimbap

What makes a bibimbap is not the mixing but everything that precedes it: each vegetable — spinach, courgette, carrot, bean sprout, bracken — is cooked and dressed on its own, then laid down without touching its neighbours. Meat, an egg and a spoonful of gochujang go on top. The dish is generally traced back to meals that gathered several separately prepared items into a single bowl.

Mix hard and mix for longer than feels necessary, until the rice is a uniform colour; a half-mixed bibimbap does not taste like the dish it is meant to be. Add the gochujang gradually, tasting, rather than all of it at once. In the stone bowl version, leave the rice to catch on the bottom first, so there is a grilled crust under the mix.