Well, Nabe is soup, but the style of cooking is probably just a tiny bit different. Nabe usually starts with the base, probably the same as soup, but all meat and vegetables go into the soup raw and are cooked in the pot. This cooking process usually takes place at the dinner table, but since we don’t have a gas heater for cooking, we just do the preparation at the stove and bring it to the table after it is done cooking. In that sense it really is like soup.

The big difference is that you continue to add vegetables and meat throughout the eating process. Obviously this is mostly geared toward those people who cook it at the table, but if the dinner lasts for a few hours, the meal will continue to progress using the same broth to heat the ingredients. Also, since the broth is used over a longer period of time, that means that in your bowl you don’t have much liquid; just the ingredients.

Then, as an added feature, after you have finished eating all of the meat and vegetables, you can then have the broth as a soup, or like we have done, you can put a scrambled raw egg into the pot and some rice to make a kind of risotto. The choices are varied and it’s a very versitile meal. This is perfect for families because you keep adding ingredients into the pot until everyone is full, and since you stick only to meat and vegetables it’s very healthy and cheap. I’d say give it a try, but it may be a bit confusing without reading up on it first.