Facts About Kongbap
Kongbap is a Korean dish consisting of white or brown rice cooked together with one or more varieties of beans. Kongbap may be made from scratch by combining and cooking together dried rice and beans, although outside Korea the word "kongbap" is commercially used in premixed multi-grain packages in dried form. In Korea, multigrain rice cosisting of grains other than soybeans are called japgok-bap. It is noted that the Korean word kong means soybeans and is contrasted with the word pat meaning adzuki beans, thus the word kongbap does not refer to patbap. Rice cooked with beans other than soybeans, such as French beans or peas, are usually called with the specific bean names, as in gangnang-kong-bap or wandu-kong-bap.
Kongbap in culture
Although it is generally acknowledged as a healthful and nutritious food, kongbap was not universally enjoyed as it was associated with imprisonment. Kongbap had long been a staple of Korean prison food. The Korean phrase kongbap meokda (콩밥 먹다; literally "to eat kongbap") translates colloquially as "to be imprisoned." This is similar to a phrase in England with the same meaning: "to do porridge."
However, with a recent health food trend in South Korea, the popularity of beans has risen and kongbap is more commonly eaten in Korean households than before.
Similar dishes
- Japgok-bap (mixed-grain rice) is a bap including short-grain white and brown rice, green peas, azuki beans, black soybeans, yulmu (Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen), black glutinous rice, barley, and sorghum. The dried mixture is generally soaked in water for several hours or overnight before cooking, in order to ease the softening process of the beans while cooking.
- Patbap (red bean rice) is made from red azuki beans.
North Korea