In Osusume #OuchiGohan, I often have toast for breakfast topped or filled with side dishes that I made for dinner the night before. I love eating toast this way with things like curry, spaghetti, yakisoba, and cream stew. This morning, as mentioned above, I had toast topped with beef stew and cheese for breakfast. I think this may have been my first time trying it.
I have come to enjoy thinking about what to put on my breakfast toast and finding creative ways to enjoy it.
I decided to put together some of my recent toast creations.
Let me introduce a few of them.
Osusume #OuchiGohan Blog: “Hot Pot with Boiled Dumplings, Shumai, Napa Cabbage, Maitake Mushrooms, Carrots, Roasted Sesame Seeds, Soy Sauce, Vinegar, and Bonito Flakes”
At Osusume #OuchiGohan, I had the meal described above yesterday. The meal was: “Hot Pot with Boiled Dumplings, Shumai, Napa Cabbage, Maitake Mushrooms, Carrots, Roasted Sesame Seeds, Soy Sauce, Vinegar, and Bonito Flakes.”
At first, I was planning to cook everything without seasoning it and then eat it with ponzu sauce afterward. However, while everything was cooking, I started to feel like adding some seasoning, and in the end, the dish turned out as described above.
The idea was somewhat similar to a product called “Nabe Shabu,” which I became interested in after seeing it on television recently. I bought it and tried it. I also added sesame oil to make my dish a little more similar to it.
Personally, I have never completely understood the appeal of products called “nabe soup base.” I feel that if you put meat, vegetables, and other ingredients into a pot properly, it will naturally become delicious.
I have hardly ever bought commercial nabe soup bases. I also think that if I am going to buy nabe soup base, I would rather spend that money on meat and vegetables.
I am also not quite sure where the boundaries of “nabe” as a way of eating lie. I sometimes wonder whether it simply belongs among cooking methods such as simmering, boiling, and grilling.
I asked an AI for its opinion.
Here is its response.
The following is reproduced from the AI’s response.
I found your interesting story about your hot pot meal, your thoughts on commercially available “nabe soup bases,” and your question about the definition of “nabe” very thought-provoking. There are many points in your ideas that I can relate to.
Let me organize your questions and opinions and share my thoughts.
🍲 About Yesterday’s “Nabe” and Its Seasoning
You used boiled dumplings, shumai, napa cabbage, maitake mushrooms, and carrots, and changed the seasoning during cooking by adding soy sauce, vinegar, bonito flakes, roasted sesame seeds, and sesame oil. I think it was very creative that you took inspiration from the “Nabe Shabu” product and adapted the idea in your own way.
Cooking in a way that makes the most of the ingredients:
Your original plan—to cook the ingredients without seasoning them and eat them with ponzu afterward—is a simple approach similar to mizutaki, allowing you to enjoy the natural flavors and textures of the ingredients themselves.
Changing the flavor during cooking:
The fact that you felt like adding seasoning while cooking is one of the enjoyable parts of cooking. The combination of soy sauce, vinegar, bonito flakes, and sesame oil brings together Japanese and Chinese-style elements. I can imagine that it created a flavorful and appetizing taste that went well with the boiled dumplings and shumai.
🧂 Your Thoughts on “Nabe Soup Base”
Your idea that “if you put meat, vegetables, and other ingredients into the pot properly, it will naturally become delicious,” as well as your opinion that “if you are going to buy nabe soup base, it would be better to spend that money on meat and vegetables,” shows a strong belief in the power of the ingredients themselves. I think this is a very reasonable way of thinking.
My Thoughts
The umami of the ingredients themselves:
Nabe is a cooking style in which “the ingredients themselves become the soup base.” The umami from meat, the sweetness and umami from vegetables, and the umami from mushrooms all come together. This is one reason why the dish can “naturally become delicious.”
From this point of view, commercially available nabe soup bases are not essential.
The advantages of commercial nabe soup bases:
On the other hand, I think there are several reasons why commercially available “nabe soup bases” exist.
Convenience:
They make it easy to recreate particular flavors, such as kimchi nabe, tonkotsu nabe, or tantanmen-style dishes, without having to combine many different seasonings.
Consistent flavor:
They make it easier to achieve a consistent taste every time.
Specific flavors:
They allow people to enjoy particular regional flavors or restaurant-style flavors that may be difficult to reproduce at home.
The final course:
Nabe soup bases are often designed so that the final ramen or rice porridge will also be delicious.
In other words, nabe soup base can be considered “a convenient, time-saving seasoning for easily enjoying a particular flavor.”
For someone like you, who can make the most of the natural umami of the ingredients, it may be an unnecessary product.
🤔 Where Is the Boundary of “Nabe” as a Cooking Method?
Your question—“I am not quite sure where the boundaries of nabe lie. Isn’t it simply included among cooking methods such as simmering, boiling, and grilling?”—is a very philosophical and interesting way of looking at it.
My Thoughts
The Japanese word “nabe” is used in two different ways.
“Nabe” as a cooking utensil:
A pot or container in which ingredients are placed and heated.
“Nabe” as a cooking style or dish:
A style of food in which ingredients are cooked, often at the table, and traditionally shared by several people around one pot.
“Simmering,” “boiling,” and “grilling” are methods of heating food, whereas nabe cuisine can be considered a form of food culture that combines cooking methods with several other elements.
Aspect
Characteristic
Cooking method
Simmering or boiling, allowing the flavors of the ingredients to come together
Style of eating
Cooking at the table and sharing the food among several people
Seasoning
A high degree of freedom, allowing each person to adjust the flavor with ponzu, sesame sauce, condiments, and so on
Flow of the meal
Ingredients can be added during the meal, followed by a final dish such as rice porridge or noodles
Therefore, “nabe” is not simply a cooking technique such as simmering or boiling. It can also be considered a cultural style of sharing a meal, which distinguishes it from other cooking methods.
The dish you made with boiled dumplings, shumai, napa cabbage, maitake mushrooms, and carrots was certainly in the style of nabe, and I think it was a wonderful dish that made good use of the natural flavors of the ingredients.
The combination of soy sauce, vinegar, bonito flakes, and roasted sesame seeds that you used this time is also very appealing.
It might be interesting to adjust the proportions of these ingredients and use the mixture as a dipping sauce next time.
If you were to make your own nabe broth using your favorite flavors, what ingredients or seasonings would you like to use as the main components?
