Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Shabu-shabu
Shabu-shabu — paper-thin beef swished through hot broth and dipped in sauce
Paper-thin beef swished through simmering broth and eaten with sesame or ponzu sauce. It is said to have taken a hint from Beijing's lamb hot pot, shuan yang rou, and both Osaka and Kyoto have restaurant accounts of how it was devised.
- Shabu-shabu style
Lineage
What it's made of
Beef cut very thin is swished through kombu dashi, and the moment its color turns, its sweetness comes up. Rich sesame sauce or tart ponzu then lands on top. Napa cabbage, onion, tofu, and mushrooms cook in the same pot, and many restaurants finish by adding noodles or rice to the broth that has taken on the beef's flavor.
How it's made
Dashi is brought to a boil in the pot, and slices of beef go in one at a time, are swirled with chopsticks, and lifted out after a few seconds. Long cooking is the thing to avoid, since overcooked beef turns tough. Vegetables go in after the meat and cook in the seasoned broth. Thinness is everything, and restaurants cut the meat with dedicated slicers or knives to keep it even.
Why it took this shape
The name is said to come from the sound of beef swirling in the hot liquid, and in Osaka the previous owner of Eirakucho Suehiro Honten is said to have devised and named it in 1952. Kyoto's Junidanya, for its part, explains that soon after the war it began serving beef mizutaki, on the advice of a folk-craft movement figure who had explained a Chinese fire-pot to the owner. Both stories are said to rest on Beijing's shuan yang rou, though a direct link is unclear.
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.
- 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
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here
- Known for it here: Osaka, Osaka (Kita Ward)
Eirakucho Suehiro Honten, said to have devised both the dish and the name 'shabu-shabu' in 1952, stands here. The restaurant opened in 1910 as a Western-style eatery, and the swish-in-broth way of eating thin beef is said to have spread from Osaka.
- Known for it here: Kyoto, Kyoto (Higashiyama Ward)
Junidanya in Gion explains that its second-generation owner, after hearing about a Chinese fire-pot, devised beef mizutaki suited to Kyoto, where beef is close at hand, and it names this as the origin of shabu-shabu. Kyoto has also raised cattle since long ago.
Related lineage
- SukiyakiThin-sliced beef seared in an iron pan, simmered in sweetened soy sauce with vegetables and dipped in beaten raw egg. Eastern Japan simmers everything in a pre-mixed sauce while the west sears the meat first and seasons as it goes.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.