Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Sukiyaki
Sukiyaki — thin-sliced beef simmered in sweetened soy sauce with vegetables
Thin-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.
- Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)
Lineage
What it's made of
Beef fat slowly renders on the hot iron pan as the sweet-savory smell of soy and sugar rises from the sauce. Shirataki noodles, long onion, tofu, and chrysanthemum greens each soak up the meat's fat and the sauce, arriving at the mouth with a different texture apiece. A final dip in beaten raw egg is said to soften the heat and round off the aftertaste. The better the fat's quality, the more the meat's own sweetness is said to hold up against the sauce's strength.
How it's made
The Kanto style mixes soy sauce, sugar, and mirin into a sauce ahead of time and simmers the ingredients in it as the meal proceeds. The Kansai style sears the meat first in beef fat, seasons it directly with sugar and soy, then adds vegetables and lets the liquid that emerges stand in for the pre-mixed sauce. Meat is sliced thin so it cooks through quickly and takes on the sweet-savory flavor readily.
Why it took this shape
One account traces the name to using a plow blade (suki) as a makeshift griddle, the dish spreading once beef eating was lifted from restriction in the Meiji era. In places with access to good beef, a stronger-flavored sauce or direct searing is said to have been favored to showcase the fat's sweetness, and sukiyaki is said to have settled in as the signature preparation in one brand-beef region after another. Cattle raised over a long span to build fat are said to pair especially well with that stronger seasoning. In towns where long-established beef restaurants still stand, sukiyaki is said to have held a place as a dish for special occasions.
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
- Toriniku no SukiyakiA whole chicken, offal included, is piled onto a platter with napa cabbage and chrysanthemum greens and simmered in a bold sugar-and-soy broth — a gathering-day hot pot from the Kasuya-to-Munakata area, where poultry-raising is said to have taken off after an Edo-era famine.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here
- Known for it here: Shiga, Omihachiman
Omi beef is raised across the Omi region including Omihachiman, and long-established restaurants featured on the city's tourism site serve a "sukiyaki set" as a signature dish. Lying along the old Nakasendo highway, the area is said to have developed a beef-eating culture earlier than many other parts of Japan.
- Known for it here: Mie, Matsusaka
Matsusaka beef comes only from virgin heifers raised over a long span, and the city's tourism association lists several long-established beef restaurants dating to the Meiji era. Sukiyaki is said to be the signature preparation at many of these shops, chosen to showcase the fat's quality.
Derived style
- Sukiyaki (Kanto-fu)Sukiyaki in which beef and vegetables simmer in a warishita broth mixed beforehand. It is said to descend from the gyunabe that spread through Yokohama and Tokyo, and its dividing line from the Kansai style is whether the seasoning is settled outside the pot or inside it.
- Sukiyaki (Kansai-fu)Sukiyaki in which beef is grilled in a pan greased with beef fat and seasoned by sprinkling sugar and soy sauce straight on it. It is said to descend from sukiyaki, grilling fish or meat on a plow blade, and unlike the Kanto style that simmers, this one grills first and simmers after.
Contrast
- Sakana no JifuSeasonal blue-backed fish such as saury or mackerel are simmered with vegetables, tofu, and konjac noodles in a soy-based broth, a fisherman's hot pot from the Higashi-Kishu coast. Also called "fish sukiyaki," it is a staple that can easily stretch to feed a crowd.
- 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.