My uncle and aunt are here visiting from Australia. It was my uncle's birthday today, so our family celebrated together with shabu-shabu and cake (not at the same time!). We used to eat shabu-shabu together for New Year's Eve often, but haven't in recent years. I miss those days.

Shabu-shabu is such a communal dish...generally too much work for just a few people. To really do it right, you need a large variety of foods. We usually have ours with shabu-shabu meat (sliced really thin), tofu, nappa, enoki mushrooms, regular mushrooms, green onions, and other stuff. It's just soooooo good! And since it's mostly veggies and really lean meat all cooked without oils, it's pretty healthy too. You just have to be careful to keep track of how much you eat. Otherwise, before you know it, you've lost count of how many bowlfuls you've eaten.