Eating cheap in Tokyo: Shabu-shabu

Japanese housewives know a thing or two about saving money and delicious food. All varieties of nabe (means hotpot) are very easy on the pocket, takes up very little preparation time, and is very healthy because of the lack of oil and only healthy ingredients are required.

My favourite of all the hotpot dishes in Japan is shabu-shabu. I don’t think my homemade version will ever beat the ones in restaurants but it’s my lazy-gal’s solution when I don’t feel like slaving over the stove.

To kick things off, I boil some water in my nabe pot (it’s actually a claypot), while I commence chopping and cleaning my ingredients, which take about 10 minutes.

1 packet of bean sprouts = 50JPY
1 packet of tofu = 100JPY
1 packet of shiitake mushrooms = 158JPY
1 packet of enoki mushrooms = 100JPY
1 packet of engiri mushrooms = 130JPY
½ packet of shabu beef slices = 350JPY
½ packet of shabu pork slices = 300JPY

This is enough for two people and it costs 594JPY each. I haven’t counted in the bottles of goma (sesame) and ponzu (yuzu-flavoured soy sauce) sauce because a few shakes of each are too miniscule to calculate. They cost about 400 to 500JPY for a small size and they last a while.

So what you need to do is put the sauces in separate soup bowls and by then the water should be boiling. I would then transfer the nabe pot to a small gas stove on the dining table and tear the kangaroo away from his computer to sit down for a couply dinner.

Usually I put in enough into the nabe pot so I can ladle out two servings each at once so both bowls with the sauces will be filled. Add some water from the pot to the sauce to dilute it, so it turns into a savory soupy dish.

It’s great when you want to linger over dinner a bit so weekends are usually perfect for shabu-shabu, especially if it’s cold like now.

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