Tag Archives: offal

Japanese Shabu-Shabu, Sukiyaki, and Nabe: Some Hot Winter Dishes in Japan

by Jen Tsai on 2010/11/30 in Asia, Featured Article, World Recipes and Ingredients

With winter just around the corner, it’s sometimes difficult to get warm, especially if you live in a Japanese home where the word ‘insulation’ is non-existent! Trying to find a dish which will get you nice and toasty is equally difficult, and as I just said, even more so when living in Japan. Well foodies, I have just the meal to beat the winter blues! Recently, I’m finding myself eating more and more nabe, sukiyaki, and shabu-shabu meals. These three related meals are healthy and utterly delicious. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of eating them.

Allow me describe them for you. Let’s start off with the two you probably already know of: sukiyaki and shabu-shabu.

Sukiyaki and shabu-shabu are similar in terms of the ingredients used but different in all other aspects. Sukiyaki is described as a dish which is more sweet than it is savory. Shabu-shabu, on the other hand, is more savory rather than a sweet dish. I suggest trying both before you decide if you like the sweet or the savory more. I can’t decide for the life of me which I prefer.

Both sukiyaki and shabu-shabu are traditionally served with very thin slices of beef. However, many restaurants now serve pork slices just as thin as the beef. Other ingredients added to the soy-based broth are napa cabbage, mushrooms (shiitake and/or enokitake), negi (a thin scallion), leeks, carrots, and vermicelli-like noodles. Rice is generally served along side both dishes as well.

Sukiyaki is served in a very shallow pot where you have to constantly keep adding the soy-water base. Shabu-shabu is served in a deeper pot, almost like the ones in Chinese hot pot.

When it comes to dipping sauces, sukiyaki doesn’t have any. All you get is a raw egg to dip your cooked meat into. This is because the soup base in the pot is already so flavourful, you don’t need to add any other flavors to it! However, with shabu-shabu you have a choice of two sauces; the first is the very traditional and Japanese-like sesame based sauce, the other is ponzu based sauce. Ponzu is a tart, citrus sauce. In most cases, soy sauce is added to the ponzu. I have to admit that I love ponzu and would order shabu-shabu over sukiyaki just for it.

Have you ever wondered why they call shabu-shabu ‘shabu-shabu’? Well, shabu-shabu literally translates to “swish-swish”. As in the swish-swish movement you make with your wrists when cooking your meat. Unlike Chinese hot pot where you place your meat into the ladle, with shabu-shabu you only have the chopsticks in your hand. And if you love eating meat like I do, you don’t want to let it go lest a certain someone or someones steal your food!

All the restaurants I have been to serve both shabu-shabu and sukiyaki and are all-you-can-eat for 90 minutes. At night you have the additional choice of all-you-can-drink for an extra 1,000-1,500yen, also for 90 minutes.

My personal recommendations would be going to Mo-Mo Paradise (Minami-Ikebukuro 1-21-2, Humax Pavilion 8F) in Ikebukuro and Nabezo (6F Shibuya BEAM 31-2, Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) in Shibuya. Both restaurants have several locations around the Tokyo area, but Ikebukuro for Mo-Mo Paradise and Shibuya for Nabezo are my preferences. At Mo-Mo Paradise it will cost roughly 1,500yen during lunch and 3,500yen for dinner. Nabezo will set you back 1,300yen at lunch and 2,000yen for dinner.

Another place I’ve yet to try, but have walked past many times, is Niimura in the Shinjuku Kabukicho area. Here they serve wagyu beef with their shabu-shabu and sukiyaki courses starting from 2,800yen. If you’re daring enough, you can also order the raw horse meat for an extra 1,200yen! I think I have my next restaurant lined up! Just a tip for the economical food trotter: prices are usually lower during the weekdays compared to the weekends.

Now Nabe.

Nabe is the Japanese style one-pot dish served with rice. The base of nabe can be either a stew or soup base, but is most commonly a soup base. Ingredients found in nabe are the same as the ones found in sukiyaki and shabu-shabu with the exception of the protein. Protein wise, you can have nabe with beef, pork, chicken, seafood and even offal.

What the heck is offal you may ask? Good question! Offal is a polite term for the entrails and internal organs of that particular animal, minus the muscle and bones. You may say “yuck” now but you should resist judgement until you’ve tried the pork offal! Many wonder how Japanese women can have such beautiful skin. Well here’s your answer; it is said that pork offal helps you achieve beautiful skin. What’s more, it’s not fattening… how are you not tempted into at least trying this dish?

Pork or beef offal is generally served in motsunabe style. Motsunabe is traditionally from the Fukuoka area (southern Japan) but can be found throughout Japan.

Another style of nabe is the more common and more popular yosenabe. Yosenabe is typically served with a miso or soy based broth and anything and everything can be added to the pot.

The third popular style of nabe dish is chankonabe. Have you ever wondered how all those sumo wrestlers get so big? Chankonabe is the traditional dish that all sumo wrestlers eat to achieve the tithe size that they are. After they eat this, they take a nice nap. What we get in restaurants is the same dish, but a smaller portion (thankfully!). Meatballs, chicken, vegetables, udon, and other ingredients are what you get in chankonabe.

Eating Nabe in a restaurant can set you back anywhere from 3,500yen and up. Some popular places where you can get Nabe is at Waka (Roppongi 4-1-9, Bellza Roppongi B1F) in Roppongi which specializes in the chankonabe, Botan (Kanda Sudacho 1-15) in Awajicho, and Momonja (Ryogoku 1-10-2) in Ryogoku, which specializes in wild boar nabe.

Of course there are many restaurants all around Tokyo, especially in the Shibuya/Shinjuku areas, that serve nabe, sukiyaki, and shabu-shabu. These are just a few of the places I’ve tried so far and can recommend going to. And don’t forget! At many of these restaurants you can order the all-you-can drink plan for an extra 1,000-1,500yen during dinner time. It’s well worth if if you ask me!

[Photos courtesy of pipichan, japan-i, inmagine]

Shabu-Shabu, Sukiyaki, and Nabe in Japan: The What/Where/How of Japanese Hot Winter Dishes
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Eating Balls – Cooking with Testicles?

by Nancy Huynh on 2010/06/25 in International

Many men would grimace at the idea of eating balls – testicles – of an animal. Perhaps men are better equipped to understand the pain these animals would have gone through in losing their balls, or perhaps it is simply too close to home. As a woman, I have no issue with eating testicles, though I haven’t had to the opportunity to. This might give new meaning to the moniker some alpha women have been given – ball breakers. The whole idea of eating testicles reminds me of an old Hong Kong movie, where the protagonist was rumoured to be highly endowed and great in the sack because of his weekly lunch of wonton noodles and bulls balls. Guys, take whatever you want from this myth or fact; maybe your girlfriend, wife, or partner might be great-full you gave testicles a try. I’m not guaranteeing anything here.

Depending on where you live, eating balls may not be uncommon at all, and can even be considered a delicacy. In Western Canada and the United States, where cattle ranching is a major industry, Rocky Mountain Oysters, or Prairie Oysters (a nicer regional name for testicles) can be found in restaurants as appetizers. In these ranching regions, they are usually served battered and deep fried. Considering how much beef North Americans consume, there certainly are plenty of Prairie Oysters to go around.

Keep in mind that the animals were never killed primarily for their testicles, but rather the removal of testicles is a common husbandry and culinary practice. So if you’re a meat eater, you are only part and parcel of a food system that practices castration of livestock. Weather you have the balls (pun intended) to eat testicles is a whole other matter entirely.

If you have read this far, you might be surprised or interested to know that there is a cookbook specifically for cooking testicles. And above all, it is written by a man. Chef Ljubomir Erovic, from Serbia where this type of offal is also a delicacy, has been cooking with balls for over 20 years, and two years ago published The Testicle Cookbook – Cooking with Balls. The book contains recipes for a variety of dishes, including pizza and meat pie. Such a book is bound to irk a few people:

  • “the perfect gift for the gourmet chef who has everything, or your friendly neighbourhood feminist vegetarian” [bookfail.com]
  • “the dudes gota be gay im suprised his wife hasnt questioned his obsesion with the nuts.” In the comments at [geekologie]

Clearly, the sentiment towards eating testicles has something to do with different cultural discourses on gender. I’m neither a raging feminist, nor really a feminist at all, but why is it that in dominant mainstream North American culture, organ meat is considered weird?

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