What do a bunch of foodie friends do on a random Monday night? Shabu Shabu! It falls into the category I like to think of as interactive eating – French fondue, Korean BBQ, Chinese hot pot, Japanese Shabu Shabu – I love them all. You cook thinly sliced meats and veggies in pots of broth at the table. Perfect for a food-loving group of friends.

Shabu Shabu

We had a great spread of meats including two kinds of beef, pork, and salmon. For veggies, there was bok choy, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, turnip, kabocha squash, black fungus, onions, enoki mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, and snow peas. Plus tofu.

As our food was cooked in the broth, we pulled it out and dipped it in ponzu and sesame garlic sauces. But the fun didn’t end there. Cooking all of those great foods over the course of the meal enriched our broth, which we then dunked handmade noodles into for a delicious finishing soup. We washed all of this down with a variety of plum wine, Japanese beer, sake, and whiskey.

Dessert

Of course with this crowd, even after all of that consumption, we also had to have dessert. There was an apple crisp and a fruit salad, which people started digging into before I got a chance to take any pics! And I made Cinnamon Chouquettes (find my Guessipe here). Mondays like this make starting the week so much better.