Bibimbap , which literally means "stirred rice" or "mixed rice" in Korean, is a bowl of warm rice topped with various kinds of vegetables, sautéed and seasoned, along with a fried egg, ground meat and chili pepper paste. The rice dish is served with these ingredients unmixed and placed next to each other accordingly of their color to be stirred together thoroughly by the consumer just before eating. A dribble of sesame oil can be added to bring out its savory taste as well as to make easy the mixing of ingredients. Color and taste of the ingredients of Bibimbap come in harmony, not in isolation. The number and kinds of ingredients of Bibimbap can be altered according to personal taste, thus the many variations of Bibimbap .

A bowl of Bibimbap also has a symbolic meaning to it: white-rooted vegetables such as doraji (bellflower roots) represent the ancestors; black-stemmed vegetables such as gosari (braken fern stems), the descendents; the green leaves of minari (dropwort), the offsprings to come. On the New Year’s and Thanksgiving days, at the end of ancestral rituals at each household, vegetables once offered to the ancestors are mixed together with white rice and shared among all family members to bring about togetherness.