Shabu-Shabu dinners

Ever since coming back from Japan about 18 months ago, the hubs and I have been reminiscing about the food, especially a Shabu-Shabu (S-S) dinner which we had in Osaka. For those of you who are not sure as to what a S-S dinner entails, it's one where you gently swish pieces of thinly sliced meats into a boiling pot of water. It's similar to the concept of the Chinese steamboat or hot pot.

What was special about this particular meal is the soup stock. We're very certain that what was presented to us was just plain water. Feeling a little cheated as a chicken or pork soup base is always served, we went on with the dinner, placing pieces of vegetables, mushroom, tofu and slices of meats into the pot. At the end, after cooking and eating all the raw ingredients, the soup left in the pot was surprisingly tasty! Was it the kind of meat? Vegetables? We didn't add any salt, pepper or soy sauce into the soup.

So we've been trying to recreate that whole experience and I think we've nearly done it. After a long hiatus, it's the second week of our S-S dinners and we're quite impressed with the end result The soup is surprisingly thick and a myriad of tastes hits you as you slurp it.

The pot is also a major factor in the yummy-ness of the soup. There are only the two of us to feed, so we decided to buy a smaller pot. I think on the bigger pot, there is too much water to the ratio of meats and vegetables the both of us can consume leaving us with tasteless soup.

We've got another two rounds this week. Hopefully it will only get better and I'll remember what was added to the soup in the right amounts.