Nabezo operates just under twenty so-called shabu-shabu restaurants in and around Tokyo. Its Shinjuku branch, called Nabezo Shinjuku Meijidori, which happened to be less than ten minutes’ walk from our hotel, is ranking #1 out of 9,000 Shinjuku restaurants on Tripadvisor. Shabu-shabu was only introduced to Japan in 1952 by a restaurant in Osaka that took the Chinese dish shuan yang rou from Beijing, where thin slices of mutton were used, to Japan and replaced the mutton, which was foreign to Japanese cuisine, with marbled beef, which is the red meat held in the highest regard by locals. Nowadays shabu-shabu is one of the most common hot pot dishes in the country. You can also order pork, even though no self-respecting Japanese gourmet would order it. While some would disagree, most seem to share our view that you should only eat the pork well-done. This takes the fun out of […]