The Seoul of Sharpstown

Bibim bap, which means "rice hash," has long been a favorite in Southern California. In some restaurants there, you get a bowl of fresh-cooked rice and choose your toppings from a salad bar set up with cucumber, carrots, sprouts, daikon, mushrooms, zucchini, kimchi and lettuce. The result is something like a rice salad.

When you order bibim bap at the Green Pine Tree restaurant on Long Point, you get rice and a fried egg in one bowl, and in another, shredded carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and sprouts, all marinated in a ginger dressing. Then you mix them at the table with some of the fiery Korean pepper paste called kochujang.

But here at Sam Bo Jung, they take it to another level. The menu includes ordinary bibim bap and dol sot bibim bap, which translates as "rice hash in a hot stone bowl." The black stone bowl is heated in the oven to a high temperature before the cooked rice is added. It comes to the table on a little stand. When you mix the hash, the heat of the stone bowl cooks the mixture together. But the real allure is the deliciously crunchy crust that forms on the bottom. If the bowl is hot enough, you can scrape the bottom of your dol sot bibim bap, let a second crunchy crust form, and scrape that one up too.

There are two dol sot bibim baps on the menu. I recommend the seafood version, which includes shrimp, mussels and oysters in a spicy red sauce. There are several other noodle dishes and stir-fries that look promising, too. And I love the OB (Oriental Breweries) Korean beer.

The truth is, Sam Bo Jung is not the best Korean restaurant in Houston. But you may find the funky decor and welcome-to-the-Tower-of-Babel atmosphere endearing anyway.