There are many varieties to enjoy shabu-shabu. With only lettuce, you actually can do shabu-shabu as well.
We had shabu-shabu last night. Initially, the kids wanted to have meat (always!). My wife bought thin sliced beef, normal beef, crab, buri (yellowtail). I added lettuce that I bought for 50 yen on the last day sales.
One has shabu-shabu with ponzu and raddish. Boil your broth with just plain soy sauce is nice too. I used the leftover from raddish with belly pork broth.
Next time, I will do one Lettuce Shabu party. Healthy and yummy.
The photo was taken in the dark, so don't make any judgment from the photo. It doesn't tell you any truth.
I had a fried rice yesterday night. Chef gave me some leftover of belly pork to top on the fried rice. With the gravy and veggie, it added so much taste to the fried rice.
After starting this 365 project, I have done quite some research on the dishes I have made and ate. As I live with mostly Japanese language nowadays, many of the terms I know are alien in English to me. Even with that, I still find lots of things I didn't know, and Chinese dishes that the Japanese have seem very different, if not quite, from the original Chinese cuisine. The vector of difference I found it between Chinese and Japanese is so much bigger than, for instance the mainland Chinese Chinese and Malaysian Chinese. South Asian could be categorized as one here though.
There is something about the cultural filtering mechanism by the Japanese. With the sea across the ocean, anything that came over from mainland would be purified and culturally baptized according to this far east island belief.
For example, eunuch system in China was omitted when other authority systems came to Japan. This related to the slaughter for praying in Chinese culture but when it arrived in Japan, there wasn't any trace left in regards to slaughter.
I am jumping into some big topics again.
Anyway, the belly pork is called kakuni in Japanese, came into Japanese dining table via Okinawa; rafutei, belly pork stewed in awamori, Japanese soy sauce, and miso. But, it was from Taiwan, Tong Poh pork, apparently.
Long story to cut short, the fried rice with belly pork was yummy. :)
Japanese seems like to have don; bottomed with rice, if it tops with mabo-tofu, it becomes mabo don, if with tempura, it becomes ten don, etc.
Apparently there isn't Tenshin Don in China, it is one Chinese dish by the Japanese. According to wiki, there are many unconfirmed sources about the original name, though Tenshin is Tianjin city. This Tenshin Don made by one Hong Kong restaurateur, appeared on TV program on Saturday night, Chubo desuyo! (Kitchen here!). For the gravy called An, west Japan likes to use soy sauce as the base. Whereas for east Japan, normally black vinegar is the base. I like black vinegar very much. The eggs fried with crab meat is a dish in Chinese called fuyondan. Japanese used that and turned it to be one Donburi.
This is another Hong Kong Restaurant dish. The beef was tender, black pepper was mildly flavored, and oyster sauce coated the all the ingredients, created an aroma that tasted a good balance that stayed in the mouth after each bite.
Chinese cuisine is deep.
Watching the chef cooked, he kept tasting the food he cooked, I think when he made more than one person's plate. For instance, 3 or 4 same orders for mabo tofus, or 6 Cantonese fried noodles at once, he would check with small portion. He did after the food was served, so I imagined he was reviewing his own "artwork."
Professionals keep repeating and double check their work, a never-ending repetition.
Chef made one fried rice in soup for me. Both blend excellently together, especially on a cold day. With the soup, it lessen the oily feeling thus gives a better taste of fried rice. I am still not good at fried rice. To let the rice dance rock n' roll in the pan is my next todo.
*Soup was clear but polarize makes it look like a curry.
