So one of the great things about it getting cold in japan is nabe! Nabe means ‘pot’ and nabemono is associated to eating out of the pot. It is basically stew.. but the pot is usually a large ceramic pot that you put on a stove and boil everything in it. Pretty good stuff..
A better description is here.
This last weekend I went to a nabe party at a friends house. We had a untraditional vegatarian nabe for the veggiemites and bisshu(sp?) nabe for the meat eaters. I had the bisshu nabe.. it was quite good. We used chicken and chicken gizzards (although I am not a big fan) and alot of veggies on top of that. After a few plates of that we moved on to mongolian nabe, which consisted of mutton and vegtables. I have not had mutton in years, so I endulged. Although I normally don’t like lamb, this was extremely delicious and very sweet.
Mixed in with the beer and 3 bottles of wine the 4 of us drank, it was a good time.
On a sidenote.. california muscat wine is bad.. chilean cabernet is good.