Stone bowl bip bim bop – in a lunch bag

There's a lot to like about bip bim bop made in a stone bowl, beyond the freshly steamed vegetables and the warmth that keeps on coming even 15 or 20 minutes into the meal. The best part, Pam would say, is the crisp browned edges of the rice where it spent just the right amount of time against the hot stone. In her creation tonight, she left the bowl on the burner long enough to char the rice until it was black and smoky.

Here's the twist. Bip bim bop is great for leftovers, layered into a plastic container to make an attractive presentation like a Japanese bento box. But it is just microwaved, not quite the same as stone bowled. This time Pam had some of the charred rice left over, so that's what went first into her leftovers. Tomorrow when she warms it up, she'll get the smoky goodness of the stone without having to lug the three-pound bowl to work with her.