I recommend shabu-shabu if you’re sharing a meal with friends in Japan or at a Japanese restaurant in your own country. Shabu-shabu literally means “swish-swish” in Japanese because of the sound you make when you stir in the ingredients. Japanese people love to eat shabu-shabu as part of their New Year celebrations and it’s always popular during the winter months. Shabu-shabu is cooked in a nabe hot pot of broth in the centre of the table. Each person eating at the table adds very thin slices of meat (usually rib eye or sirloin steak), vegetables such as tofu, shiitake mushrooms and Chinese cabbage as well as noodles to the pot as needed. Everyone then helps themselves to the pot. You dip each piece that you take out of the pot with your chopsticks into your own dish of ponsu or sesame sauce before eating. Shabu-shabu is great to share with friends because it’s a fun way to cook and you can discuss the length of time you should swish each ingredient before eating it.