Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Kimuchi-nabe
Kimchi-nabe — a Japanese-style hot pot of everyday ingredients seasoned with kimchi
A pot of staples such as napa cabbage, pork, and tofu seasoned with the heat and tang of kimchi. One view holds that it began in Japan when ordinary hot pots were given a kimchi flavor and named for it, and it spread through homes after a kimchi nabe base went on sale in 1999.
- Soy-based & yosenabe
Lineage
What it's made of
The ingredients are largely those familiar from Japanese hot pots, such as napa cabbage, pork, tofu, scallion, and mushrooms, with kimchi's heat, tang, and fermented savor running through the soup. In Japan kimchi is said to be seen more as an ingredient than as a seasoning, and it blends with cabbage's sweetness the longer it simmers. Some finish with rice, noodles, or cheese.
How it's made
Dashi fills the pot, kimchi and seasoning are dissolved in it, and pork, napa cabbage, and tofu go in to simmer. Because the sourness of kimchi mellows with cooking, the heat is adjusted by tasting. A store-bought nabe base makes it easy, and at home this is the common way. Leftover broth is turned into rice porridge, though some households add noodles.
Why it took this shape
Kimchi spread through Japan relatively recently; in 1999 kimchi production is said to have surpassed that of asazuke pickles, and a kimchi nabe base was released the same year. One view holds that in the 1980s and 1990s, when Korean cooking was not well known, Japanese people began flavoring everyday hot pots with kimchi and calling them kimchi-nabe. The kimchi's ripeness and role are pointed out as different from Korean jjigae.
Before You Go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
- At Yakiniku, Shabu-Shabu, and Hot PotGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
Dishes in the same style
- Chanko NabeChicken, napa cabbage, tofu, and more simmer together in broth — a hot pot born in sumo stables, said to date to the Meiji era, when four-legged meat like beef and pork was avoided since touching a hand to the ground echoed a loss in the ring. Former wrestlers still run chanko restaurants around Ryogoku, keeping their stable's flavor.
- Damako NabeFreshly cooked rice, lightly pounded with a pestle and rolled into balls called 'damako', simmers in hinai-jidori chicken broth with burdock and Japanese parsley — said to have taken shape once fish from Lake Hachirogata grew scarce and chicken took their place.