Nabe or Hotpot
In Japan, when the cold season arrives, local convenience stores and supermarkets will be lined up with ingredients for nabe ryouri.
Nabe ryouri is a dish where seasonal ingredients are put inside a nabe, and gradually eaten while being cooked. In order to cook nabe, a clay pot or metal pot is needed. Generally, there is a custom of cooking nabe in a large pot with family or friends during banquets and house parties. Due to the population of people living alone is increasing over the years, a small nabe pot for single use is also sold. Although there are many varieties of nabe all over Japan, we will introduce the 3 basic types written below:
- Mizuni no nabe or plain boiled nabe: Boil the ingredients with water and dashi or stock, then add some special sauce to the ingredients.
- Usuaji no nabe or light taste nabe: A type of nabe that adds only light seasoning. Chanko nabe and oden are some examples.
- Koiaji no Nabe or strong taste nabe: A hotpot with a rich and thick flavor (soy sauce and miso) and small quantity of broth. Sukiyaki and motsunabe are some examples of koiaji no nabe.
What do you think, everybody? Please try to eat Japanese nabe ryouri.
