Tonight we had a special team dinner to celebrate the work we have been doing this week. Our dinner this evening was Shabu-Shabu. We had a lovely dinner and really enjoyed the cultural experience.

Tonight my post will be mostly pictures as there are many steps to a Shabu-Shabu meal.

I will start with a picture of the small little containers that contained some of the condiments that we would use during the meal. A Japanese meal can be a very visual experience as you will see.

We started with a small salad that was served in a small cup. The salad was very beautiful and also tasted great.

We then had a trio of items that were very delicious. The tastes and textures were very diverse on this plate and they were beautifully plated. You definitely eat with your eyes sometimes.

Then we had a small plate of Sashimi. The fish had a wonderful taste and I loved the kick from the wasabi.

Next up was the actual Shabu-Shabu which is cooked in a hot pot filled with broth. Above we see the vegetables that will be cooked. There are several types of mushrooms, vegetables and noodles.

Here is the meat that will be cooked. The meat is very thinly slice beef.

The hot pot is filled with a very hot broth and the meat and vegetables cook very rapidly. The name Shabu-Shabu comes from the sound that is made when the items are swished through the broth as they are cooked.

The meat is dropped into the hot pot and swished back and forth a few times and is then placed in goma or sesames seed sauce.

Here are the vegetables and mushrooms that are put in a bowl of ponzu sauce.

The last item to go into the hot pot were some large noodles. They picked up the flavor of the other items that were cooked in the broth and were very delicious.

The last item in the meal was a simple scoop of Cherry Blossom Ice Cream. The ice cream was beautifully served in a small blue bowl. There is often beauty in simplicity.

We had a wonderful dinner and thankfully took a nice long walk after dinner to burn off a few of the calories.

Steven