Shabu Shabu Time!

Tonight we had Shabu Shabu (meaning swish swish) for dinner. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese fondue of interactive cooking where the diner would cook their own food by dipping the food in a boiling pot of broth and swishing it around. Here's what was cooking.

• Thinly sliced New York Steaks
• Peeled shrimp
• Bok Choi
• Chinese Napa Cabbage
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Mushrooms
• Baby corn (from a can)
• Chicken broth
• Water (to cut in the chicken broth... plenty of flavor to go around)
• Teriyaki sauce
• Dumpling dipping sauce
• Ginger sesame sauce

We've tried some of the following in the past:

• Thinly Sliced Ribeye Steak : very good, no complaints here.
• Snow peas : turns out we don't like them very much.
• Carrots : sinks and it's hard to grab once it does
• Regular Cabbage : turned out a bit too thick

What we plan to try in the future:

• Asparagus
• Green beans
• Red Snapper or some other kind of fish

**Tip: Freeze the meat most of the way thru if you're cutting thinly with a knife, it makes it much easier. If you're using a meat slicer, freeze it all the way, it seems to work even better that way. If you have a butcher near you, you can probably ask him to slice it paper thin for you.

Here's a picture of the veggies cooking away in the pot.


What we usually do is, we make one person in charge of putting the veggies in, and she will put it in pretty much by the handful depending on what's in the pot. This way, the veggies become more communal, anyone can just pick and grab whatever is in the pot. As for the meats, everyone has access to them and just pick and cook their own as they please.

Shabu shabu has become one of our favorite things to eat. It's not only healthy and quick, it's also really fun and fun to say. Anyway, enjoy playing with your food. :-)

[Update. 3.23.2009] - We had shabu shabu again over the weekend and with red snapper on sale for $2.99/lb, we decided to give that a shot in the shabu shabu pot. It cooked up quite excellent. The fish came out kinda bland, but once dipped in sauce (hot dumpling sauce was what I was using for the night) it was outstanding.

[Update. 8.24.2009] - We tried another new item that proved to be a success. Thin slices of pork loin. Delicious! Along with thinly sliced rib eye and shrimp. The rib eye was a bit of a splurge, but really, even one steak lasts a long while when thinly sliced.