Posted by Lauren

Last night, after work, I went out to dinner with my friend Sophia. We go way back. Before 2gether hit the big time, before Gelly Rolls, before Xtina’s Genie in a Bottle…. Sophia and I battled each other in hula-hoop competitions on the playground :)

90s fads gelly rolls genie bottle 2gether

Last month we met for Mediterranean food – this time we went across the street (literally!) for Japanese food. Sophia recommended a sushi place and a shabu shabu restaurant. Having never tried shabu shabu, that’s what I picked!

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Shabu shabu is the Japanese equivalent of Chinese hot pot, and translates directly to “swish swish.”

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We sat along the bar, on the right. As you can see, there are only about 45 seats, so this trendy place can get packed (especially at lunch).

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Sophia guided me through the ordering process:

  1. choose a broth – original seaweed or spicy miso in mild, medium, or extra spicy
  2. choose your meat – aged prime angus, american kobe beef, lamb, etc…
  3. rice + veggies come standard – nappa cabbage, carrot, spinach, enoki mushrooms, tofu
  4. pick your sides, drinks, and extras!

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I ordered the 1/2 lamb, 1/2 american kobe beef. All six of the Bay Area Shabuway locations serve kobe style beef (cross between kobe cattle and american angus cattle). The cows eat a vegetarian diet, are raised naturally, and are free of antibiotics and hormones. The lamb comes straight from Niman Ranch. Good stuff!

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Sophia warned me not to order the seaweed broth, so I chose the “extra spicy” miso broth – a mixture of six vegetable extracts, three types of chili peppers, and two kinds of miso without MSG.

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This is a hands-on cooking experience!

  1. Prep – let the broth boil
  2. Cook veggies (they take longer than the meats) for about 2 minutes, remove.
  3. When broth returns to a boil, put a slice of meat in the hot pot and swish it around for 5-8 seconds (don’t overcook it!)
  4. Remove the cooked meat from the hot pot, dip into either of the two dipping sauces, eat!

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This was all really fun! I struggled to get the beef into bite-sized pieces with the chopsticks, I’ve got to practice!

Here we are, all grown up! Living in a Big Data world…

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Thanks for being my dinner date, Sophia! Can’t wait til next time!

When I got home, I bonded for a couple of minutes with this girl…

Pretty, Nicole.

Question: Have you heard of or tried shabu shabu? Any other hands-on cooking experiences? I can only think of fondue…

-Lauren

 

One comment on “Shabuway, MV with Sophia

  1. I miss 2gether! “I know my calculus!”
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