Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Sukiyaki (Kanto-fu)
Sukiyaki, Kanto style — beef simmered in a sweet soy broth made ahead
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.
- Origin: Tokyo
- Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)
Lineage
What it's made of
Thin-sliced beef goes into the pot with long onion, grilled tofu, shungiku greens, and shirataki noodles, all simmered in a warishita broth of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and dashi. The sweet-savory liquid soaks into everything, and a dip in beaten raw egg rounds off the edges of the flavor. The longer the beef simmers, the firmer it gets, while the onion and tofu take up the broth and reach their best.
How it's made
The iron pot is heated, the beef is lightly seared, and the warishita is poured in before the vegetables and tofu follow. Each piece is eaten from the pot as it cooks, dipped in egg. Because the broth's backbone is fixed at the moment it is mixed, the cook watches only for doneness. When the liquid reduces, a little more warishita or dashi brings the strength back.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that Kanto-style sukiyaki descends from gyunabe, the beef pot that spread from the late Edo period into the Meiji era. A gyunabe shop is said to have opened in Yokohama in 1862, and Tokyo is recorded as having one by 1867. Gyunabe, first simmered in a miso or soy sauce from the start, is said to have settled into the warishita-simmered form, and the name sukiyaki later came to cover it.
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
Root style
- 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.
- 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.
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."