7.344

14 (Wed) December 2016

Mini Bibimbap

2.25

at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila

-Pasay City-

with DHS staff, including country office focal points

With the meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) successfully wrapped (see previously 7.342 Lamb Sandwiches), we headed straight to our annual divisional retreat (see also 6.325 DNH Annual Retreat), at the Sofitel, where we will spend the next couple days analyzing the outcomes of the UHC meeting, workshopping to align our technical programmes in 2017 with the UHC agenda, then engaging in fun activities like UHC Monolopy (a board game in which teams work towards building a health system that covers the 5 essential UHC attributes of quality, efficiency, equity, accountability, and sustainability-resilience) — I pushed for the game to be called MON-UHC-OLY, pronounced “mon-UK-oly,” but no go — and the Da UHC Code (a scavenger hunt in which teams solve a series of puzzles relating to essential public health functions towards unlocking the secret to achieving UHC — spoiler alert : the secret is the WHO Regional Action Plan for Achieving Universal Health Coverage in the Western Pacific).  Awesome.

No formal dinner on the first night, just finger foods and free-flowing cocktails — so this is how they suck me in.

The mini bibimbap was not a bad idea, except for a few fundamental flaws in execution.  First, no utensils provided to mix everything up, so no bibim (mixing) involved, and nearly impossible to eat.  Second, too much on each plate, not quite amenable to a standing buffet.  A bit short on the sesame oil and gochujang, leaving the dish overall a tad dry and bland.  And the quail egg = ick (nothing wrong with quail eggs per se, I suppose, but I’ve always found them rather creepy).  With a few tweaks, the dish could work as an appetizer or closer to a multi-course Korean tasting meal (see for example 6.039 … and Mini Dolsot Bibimbap).