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.