Steaming Hot Pot, Nabe, Japanese Food Family Style

In February 5 Tokyo Food File (Japan Times), Robbie Swinnerton suggest that "there's no finer way to eat on a chilly winter evening than sitting around a bubbling nabe hot pot. No matter what the ingredients — meat, fish, tofu or vegetables — just cooking and eating from the same communal casserole is nourishment for both body and soul."

Just Hungry agrees in Tori Nabe: Japanese Chicken and Vegetable Tabletop Hot Pot (January 2009) and enlightens us on what the Nabe concept is:

"Nabe (鍋, pronounced NA-beh) is the Japanese word for a pot or pan. But it also means a one-pot dish where several ingredients are cooked together in a broth. While nabe can be cooked in the regular way on the stovetop, the most popular kind of nabe are cooked at the table on a portable burner. The quintessential image of a Japanese happy family is one that gathered around the dining table eating a nabe. (Nabe cooked at the table is also called yosenabe (寄せ鍋), which just means a nabe where the ingredients are gathered together (寄せる、yoseru). Because a nabe is piping hot, it’s a great winter meal, with very little preparation."

We learn from Japan-Guide.com that Chanko Nabe is the traditional diet of Sumo wrestlers.

Enjoy the Chanko Nabe work in progress above.

Food to warm up body and soul for Tokyo Thursdays # 126

Previously: Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Japan Society, March 12- June 13