Sushi, tempura and tofu are
familiar words to American fans of Japanese food. However, American palates are still missing one of the most popular and oldest Japanese winter foods: nabe.
Nabe is a chunky soup made in a wide ceramic or cast iron pot and served with trays of uncooked ingredients, which diners add to the pot. The soup’s base can be anything: cod, kim-chi, tofu, napa cabbage, noodles and rice.
The reason nabe is popular among Japanese is the style in which it is prepared and eaten. The word “nabe” means “pot,” and usually a family or friends sit around a table with an empty pot on the center of the table. Then, they add ingredients one by one. It’s a conversation piece and an entrée.
“The best part of nabe is that it promotes conversations with the family or friends I am eating it with,” said Chieko Kinoshita, a 20-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student. “It’s fun.”
Nabe is frustratingly hard to find in Northern Nevada. Kyoto Restaurant, 915 W. Moana Lane, 825-9686, is one of few places where people can eat it.
“We have shabushabu or sukiyaki order about a twice a week,” said owner Dorothy Ishigooka. “I think that is because [American diners] do not want to cook themselves when they are in a restaurant.”
She offers the option to let the cook to do all the cooking, but she doesn’t recommend it.
“By letting cooks to do cooking, I think they are losing large portion of fun,” she said. “I recommend Americans to try the new experience. It is good.”
A sample menu can be found at www.bento.com/re_nabe.html.