Bibigo – Spicy Sauced Dumplings
Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
Sweet: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Pork, vegetables, peppers, sweet
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Chewy juicy dumplings in a semi-thick sauce.
Ingredients: Vegetable and Pork Dumplings Filling: (Cabbage, Pork, Glass Noodles [Water, Sweet Potato Starch, Carrageenan, Salt], Water, Onion, Green Onion, Contains 2% or less of Textured Soy Flour, Yeast Extract, Sugar, Soy Sauce [Water, Soybeans, Wheat Salt], Garlic, Salt, Ginger, Black Pepper). Dough: (Enriched Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Water, Food Starch, Contains 2% or less of Salt, Vegetable Oil). Sauce: (Water, Hot Pepper Paste [Wheat Flour, Rice Syrup, Water, Hot Pepper Powder, Salt, Wheat, Defatted Soybean Powder, Distilled Alcohol, Wheat, Koji (Aspergillus Oryzae), Sugar, Soy Sauce [Water, Soybeans, Wheat, Salt, Alcohol, Vinegar], Garlic, Chili Oil [Soybean Oil, Dried Chili Peppers], Sesame Oil, Contains 2% or less of Red Chili Flakes, Rice Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Seasoning [Yeast Extract, Salt], Red Pepper, Xanthan Gum), Green Onion
Bibigo is a Korean food company founded in 2010 under the CheilJedang, a major Korean food and lifestyle conglomerate (and interestingly, the sole licensee to import and manufacture Spam in South Korea). Bibigo, whose name comes from mashing together “bibim” (Korean for mix, as seen in the popular Korean dish bibimbap which is mixed rice) and “Go”. Originally conceived to operate Korean fast-casual restaurants the company pivoted to prepared packaged foods seeing that as a better growth market. Bibigo products began to show up in US warehouse club stores such as Costco initially but after their parent company CheilJedang purchased US packaged food maker and distributor Schwan’s (maker of Red Baron and Freschetta pizzas amongst other things) in 2019 their grocery store presence grew. I always enjoy Korean food but as it’s quite expensive at restaurants I jumped on the chance to stock up on a number of Bibigo products when Publix ran a recent BOGO promotion.
Korean dumplings, known as Mandu, typically have a little bit thicker of a dough than Japanese gyoza and often have fillings that include pork, vegetables, glass noodles, and sometimes things like tofu and kimchi. Despite being a prepared frozen food product Bibigo uses mostly clean and straightforward ingredients in these dumplings and sauce. The fillings are pork, cabbage, glass noodles, and white and green onions. Spiced with garlic, ginger, black pepper and soy sauce the only non-straightforward ingredient in the filling is textured soy flour as a binder. Similarly the dough is fairly straightforward with enriched wheat flour (apparently a requirement in the USA that bleached white flour must be enriched back with b-vitamins), salt, vegetable oil, and a bit of starch (common in Asian dumpling wrappers). The sauce is based on gochujang, or Korean fermented chili paste, and onions. I was happy to see that it appears to be a naturally fermented gochujang as Koji culture is listed in the ingredients. It also seems to be a more naturally made one as it uses rice syrup (which while not as authentic as malted barley powder or syrup is at least better than high fructose corn syrup) and a naturally brewed soy sauce. While the ingredients for these is long (it does have a filling, a dough, and a sauce) other than some modified food starch and xanthan gum it’s remarkably clean. No artificial preservatives, no artificial colors, no crazy isolated chemical ingredients or unnamed “natural flavors” (or artificial flavors), bravo to Bibigo.
Mandu always have a unique taste to me compared to other Asian dumplings. While gyoza are by far the most common type found in the typical US pan-Asian restaurants (and almost always just steamed and fried from a frozen Sysco bag, they always seem to taste the same) I appreciate the unique flavor balance in mandu. I find mandu to have a more vegetable-forward flavor that most dumplings and the Bibigo Spicy Sauced Dumplings are no exception. The cabbage, onion, green onion, and ginger in particular are very forward in the flavor profile. The pork adds enough fattiness and savory flavor to balance our the vegetables and aromatics and the glass noodles help them feel nice and light. Like many Korean noodles the dough has a certain stretchiness that’s almost mochi-like and helps them stand up to the sauce while still having excellent texture. The sauce is heavily gochujang based and has the expected heat with sweet and funky fermented notes that brings to the table. It’s thinned out a bit with some vinegar and water to give it a nice tang and some soy sauce brings umami as does some nutritional yeast. The green onions and sesame oil give the sauce a nice aromatic finish and help round it out, adding savory notes to balance the inherent sweetness of gochujang. The heat level is low but surprisingly present for a frozen meal from the grocery store. I’d rank it above a very basic hot sauce in terms of overall heat and there’s a bit of build to it.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the Bibigo Spicy Sauced Dumplings and can heartily recommend them. I loved the flavor, texture, and even the heat level which was satisfying without leaving my mouth burning. I’m also very impressed by the mostly clean ingredients for a frozen meal, and that commitment to quality comes through in the flavor. I’m happy to recommend these.
