Food & Dining: Beef Bibimbap @ Maxim's MX

Beef Bibimbap at Maxim's MX
Image from Locky's English Playground

Listed as World's 50 best foods: Readers' picks by CNN Travel, the Bibimbap 비빔밥, Korean pronunciation: [pibimp͈ap̚]) is one of the my very personal favourites Korean dish. I have always ordered bibimbap whenever I can, because it has enough carbohydrates for me to get by and it is hardly ever disappointing even if it is from the worst restaurant.

This Wednesday, I found myself suddenly drawn to a Maxim's MX in Mongkok by its Beef bibimbap poster, and the next moment, I was already holding a number 333 waiting ticket.

The bibimbap, kimchi, honey grapefruit tea and chili sauce (bedhind it)
Image from Locky's English Playground

It was written on the poster that it will at least take 15-20 minutes of waiting but I waited 3 minutes 33 seconds before I asked the manager where my dinner was. Then after another 5 minutes or so, my ticket number finally appeared, and I went to collect my meal.

From another angle
Image from Locky's English Playground

I have already forgotten the price but I'm sure it was less than $50 for the entire set, and looking at the portion of the food, I will say there is enough food for 2 ladies or 1 very hungry Locky.

The appearance was fantastic, it was colourful with carrots, turnips, wood ears and green veg nicely laid out on the rice, the rice was cooked with the right hardness/softness and each of the grains was defined even against one another. The beef was no-kiddingly thick! While the first bite was really tough, further chewing revealed the juiciness and beefineess which you'll expect from looking at the poster, and tenderness came as a big delightful surprise with the rest of the pieces.

Kimchi all dumped into the bowl and mixed
Image from Locky's English Playground

To enjoy a really awesome bowl of bibimbap, I like to dump all kimchi (cabbage and beansprouts) into the bowl then stir the mixture thoroughly with a generous supply of Korean chili sauce. Usually it will look messy after the mix but as you can see from the photo above, this particular bibimbap still looked gorgeous!

Sweet hot drink for the post-rice stomach
Image from Locky's English Playground

At less than $50-a-set at Maxim's MX as compared to the easily above $60-a-bowl anywhere else, I must say this has to be the best deal in Hong Kong if you want the food to taste and look as good as the poster!!!

My only complaint was that the rice was already not hot when I started eating, it was even colder than "warm". Had there not been a miss in my food order, could this have been so much better?

I would love to think so, and that said, I will return for a confirmation soon.


Vocabulary:
Bibimbap --

Resources:
World's 50 best foods: Readers' picks @ CNN Travel
http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/eat/readers-choice-worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-012321

Bibimbap @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap#cite_note-4