Out & About / Ventura County : Seoul Food : Mother-daughter team behind Bobilu’s dishes up home-style Korean cuisine.

When conjuring home-style cooking, area restaurant-goers probably don’t picture the likes of bulgogi or bibimbab.

But these and other traditional Korean dishes are just what Jung Suk Kim has brought from her kitchen to the recently opened Bobilu’s restaurant in Oxnard.

After years of praise from friends and family who savored her home cooking, the Korea native decided it was time to bring her passion to the public.

“Cooking was a creative outlet for her that doubled as something practical,” Kim’s daughter, Lucie, said. “It has always been one of her small pleasures. She started getting the idea that she could turn this into a business for herself.”

Lucie Kim, 27, co-owns the restaurant with her mother and serves as its spokeswoman. Jung Suk Kim does not speak English.

Bobilu’s, on Saviers Road near South Oxnard Boulevard, offers a moderately priced menu of Korean favorites, as well as some twists on the old standards.

Those familiar with the Asian cuisine will recognize the Korean barbecue dishes--thin slices of beef (bulgogi) or chicken (dakbulgogi) marinated and then cooked on a grill.

The meats are served topped with a marinade of mainly soy sauce, sesame seed oil and garlic. Another well-known dish called galbi is cooked similarly, but with short ribs instead of beef slices. Bibimbab is a vegetable and rice salad with grilled barbecue beef.

Jung Suk Kim’s improvisations include a buckwheat noodle salad tossed with mixed greens in a spicy marinade. “This is kind of a new dish even around [L.A.’s] Koreatown,” Lucie Kim said.

For the adventurous diner, Lucie Kim suggests the spicy octopus casserole with rice noodles. Or a miso (bean paste) soup that is unlike the more familiar Japanese version. “It is pretty strong,” Lucie Kim said. “It is not ordered very often by our non-Korean customers.”

Rice is a mainstay of all Korean meals, as is an assortment of panch’an, or side dishes. Among Bobilu’s side dishes, served separately in little bowls, is the famed Korean treat kimchi--spiced and fermented cabbage with copious cayenne pepper, garlic and other seasonings. Other meal accouterments, which Jung Suk Kim prepares daily, include tiny morsels of marinated beef and marinated bean sprouts and Asian vegetables.

It is worth mentioning for the conscientious eater that Korean cuisine is by and large well-balanced nutritionally and low in calories. Essential Korean seasonings used to flavor the protein-rich grilled meats and seafood include soy sauce, garlic, soybean paste, red pepper, ginger root, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Nothing is deep-fried at Bobilu’s, and you never have to worry about being slipped any monosodium glutamate.

“My mother is allergic to MSG,” Lucie Kim said. “She also worries about her own cholesterol level, so she makes sure that we take as much of the fat out of the meat before we prepare it.”

Korean restaurants aren’t exactly ubiquitous in Ventura County, so inevitably many customers scan Bobilu’s menu with an unknowing gaze.

An education awaits the uninitiated.

“We explain the menu to people who are new to Korean food,” Lucie Kim said. “We help them order so they are not disappointed if it’s not exactly what they thought.”

Squeamish? Maybe you have a family member who would rather stick to the more familiar? Bobilu’s is equipped with some Westernized menu items--bacon and Swiss cheeseburgers, Reuben sandwiches and spaghetti among them.

DETAILS

Bobilu’s Korean Restaurant is at 1201 S. Saviers Road, Oxnard, one block south of Five Points. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Call 240-9667.

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Chow Mein a go-go: Panda Express, the ever-growing Chinese food chain, will open another of its quick-service outlets at the Civic Center Plaza in Simi Valley.

The Panda Express philosophy: Customers choose from a familiar offering of ready-made entrees to create their own a la carte or combination plate meals.

The outlet will celebrate its grand opening Sept. 9 with prizes, giveaways and other festivities.

DETAILS

A new Panda Express in Simi Valley, at 2667 Tapo Canyon Road, will open Sept. 9. Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Call 527-1786.

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The Camarillo Health Care District is teaming with Ventura County Jewish Family Service to offer “Cooking for Men,” a four-week series designed to teach men some food basics.

Initially, the course was created to guide older men who had lost their wives and didn’t have a clue as to how to prepare a meal for themselves.

Turns out widowed men aren’t the only ones showing interest in the course--or for that matter lacking kitchen skills--according to Susan Hardy, executive director of Jewish Family Service. “Some of the men signing up are quite a bit younger than we had expected,” she said.

The series will be held weekly beginning Sept. 12. The first installment will concentrate on breakfast fare, such as fruit smoothies and . . . cinnamon toast?

Don’t you snicker.

“Lots of men haven’t a clue about mixing the ingredients and shaking it on the toast,” Hardy said. “I know that sounds incredible, but I know I’m right, too. And they don’t know how good it is when it’s done right.”

Other classes will feature light lunches and dinners, and the final class “will cover all the fun stuff in between.”

The classes will be taught by three instructors, including Hardy, who will lead the dinner installment. And participants get to eat the food.

DETAILS

“Cooking for Men,” a weekly four-part basic cooking-skills series, will begin Sept. 12, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Classes will be held at 3639 E. Las Posas Road. $20 for Camarillo and Somis residents; $22 others. Prepayment is required. For more information, call 388-1952, Ext. 117.

Rodney Bosch writes about the restaurant scene in Ventura County and outlying points. He can be reached by calling 653-7572, faxing 653-7576 or e-mailing rodney.bosch@latimes.com.