Dining on nabemono in a restaurant is a participatory experience,
since everyone at
the table does the cooking. Each table is equipped with a small gas
burner (or a portable
charcoal hibachi burner at traditional restaurants). The burner is lit
and a big pot of
cooking broth is set on top. Once the liquid starts bubbling you can
add food to the pot
piece by piece. Fish, prawns, and various mushrooms and fungi should
be added first,
since they take the longest to cook. Very crisp vegetables, such as
carrots, can also be
added at this stage. Seasonings such as scallions, grated radish, and
red pepper are added
to your own private dish of ponzu-tare (a citrus-flavored soy-based
dip) rather than to
the communal pot. The most delicate ingredients (such as tofu and
chrysanthemum
leaves) should be cooked just before you eat them. Watch them
carefully and pull them
out quickly, otherwise they'll overcook and fall apart. The meal will
usually end with
udon noodles or rice -- these are added to the pot to soak up the
remaining liquid, which
is by then quite flavorful. One more cooking tip -- usually there's a
wooden spoon that
you can use to skim the foam off the top of the bubbling liquid.
Nabemono dishes are
most popular in the late fall and winter months. A few varieties like
beef sukiyaki can
be found all year round. Exotic meats such as wild boar, venison, and
horsemeat are
often cooked nabemono-style, and these can be found in Japanese
regional restaurants.