Shabu-Shabu
While eating at Restaurant Michael Mina recently, I had the opportunity to try the French Chef version of shabu-shabu. If you haven’t experienced shabu-shabu, you have missed out on a true delicacy. The dish is Japanese, and is essentially very thinly sliced Kobe beef that is cooked in a pot of broth, maintained on a small burner in the center of the table, that is shared by all persons at the table. The broth is initially flavored with various spices, sauces and an array of vegetables. As each person lifts a slice of beef with their chopsticks and drops it into the broth, the juices from the meat add to the flavor of the broth, causing it to evolve into a fabulous concoction by the end of the meal! After the meat cooks, which takes literally only seconds, the slice of beef is fished out with chopsticks and dipped in a thin, spicy sauce, that sometimes includes a raw egg (watch that if you are nervous about eating raw eggs – don’t let the waiter/waitress add the egg – I’ve always found they are understanding when I wave the egg away). The end result is a hyper-flavored slice of beef that literally melts in your mouth! Soooooo good that words can’t do justice! In Japan, shabu-shabu is considered a very high-end dish, and is priced accordingly. I’ve seen it priced as high as a hundred bucks a head!
I’ve tried to find good shabu-shabu in the US, and its surprisingly difficult given the popularity of Japanese restaurants in all major cities in the US. I guess its not a surprise that the best places I’ve found are in Washington D.C. and New York City. I have yet to come across a truly competent shabu-shabu in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I keep looking. Anyway, I was surprised to see shabu-shabu on the menu at Michael Mina’s so I had to give it a try as my appetizer at dinner a few nights ago. The dish is served with five pieces of the thin kobe beef, each wrapped tightly around a small bunch of delicate grasses and herbs and enoki mushrooms. The kobe wrapped bundle is dropped into a small bowl of broth that is heated by a sterno can, and then dipped in the thin herb sauce. It was really a good dish! But sadly, it was not shabu-shabu!
By the way, during one of my visits to Japan, my Japanese host told me that the name shabu-shabu comes from the sound at the table of the beef being swished around in the cooking broth and the dipping sauce. I’ve also heard that “shabu-shabu” means “swish-swish” in Japanese. Don’t know which is true … but, it does kind of sound like shabu-shabu-shabu-shabu…!
– Chris