The beauty of Japanese cuisine is in its wide variety of ingredients and cooking methods. The various ways of preparing the many different categories of ingredients combine to create healthy, nutritionally well-balanced meals. Here is an introduction to some of the principal categories of Japanese cuisine. Once the characteristics of each category are understood, Japanese cooking can be more fun and healthier.

recipes

Nabemono

Let's have a hot pot dish with the family!

Nabemono, or nabe-ryori, means dishes prepared by cooking the ingredients in a dashi broth or soup in a hot pot at the dining table.

Nabemono has the image throughout Japan as a dish symbolic of cozy family get-togethers.

Typical nabe dishes include sukiyaki, shabu-shabu, mizutaki, yose-nabe and oden. A shallow earthenware or iron pot is used on the table with a tabletop gas burner or an electric cooker for cooking. People sit around the pot, cooking and selecting ingredients to put in their individual bowl. Ingredients are eaten as they are or dipped in a ponzu soy sauce, other types of sauce or beaten egg.

related recipes

Sukiyaki

312kcal / per person

Sukiyaki is prepared with thinly sliced beef cooked in a skillet and seasoned with sugar and soy sauce-based sauce. Tofu, shirataki, shiitake and shungiku are added and cooked together. Usually it is cooked at the table as you eat.

Shabu-shabu

357kcal / per person

Shabu-shabu is one kind of hot pot. Cook thinly sliced beef and vegetables and eat with dipping sauces such as ponzu soy sauce or sesame-based sauce. The term shabushabu is an onomatop?ia, derived from the sound emitted when the meat is stirred in the pot.