Cracking Good – Phoenix, Arizona

Posts Tagged ‘Shabu shabu’

Phoenix shabu shabu (swish swish)

Posted March 8, 2010 at 4:15 am by carrie

Shabu Shabu is a Japanese hot pot meal, titled for the sound the meat makes when cooking in broth (swish swish). It consists of raw meat, tofu, noodles and vegetables submerged into a pot of bubbling broth. Kind of like soup, but different.

A friend and I had just been talking about Shabu Shabu.

“You know what I want?” she questioned. “Shabu shabu.”
“Too bad they don’t sell it anywhere in Phoenix, ” I told her.

Which I believed until I saw a Twitter from Hana pimping their Shabu Shabu. “We must go!” I told my husband upon viewing aforementioned Tweet.

I gave them a call and made reservations for that very night.

Upon arrival they ushered us to a 4-person table and then pulled another one along side, “There’s going to be a lot of food. You’ll need this,” our server explained.

Oh really?

Soon we had edamame and a crab/cucumber appetizer in front of us.

We set out our giant beer and sake (it’s BYOB) and settled in for an adventure.

Soon they set up a hot plate and brought out a big boiling pot of water along with a plate of veggies and noodles and a platter of raw meat.

Then came dipping sauces (ponzu and shabu shabu) and sides of chopped green onion and grated daikon.

After systematically dunking and eating a plate of veggies and 1/2 a platter of meat, we’re stuffed.

“We had a table of 3 come in an polish off 3 plates of meat,” noted our server eyeing our still-half-full plate. There’s no way.

There is, however, a little room for dessert, which is included in the meal. I’ve got dairy problems, so my husband and I were given the non-dairy option you see below. An airy and light ending to a full dinner.