A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

Nabemono is said to be the best dish during the chilly season. Cooked on the table, it is naturally piping-hot, and easy to cook: cut everything, throw them into a pot, boil, and done within 10 minutes!

Although nabemono has such virtues, I don’t usually cook it so often. It becomes not cold enough to enjoy nabemono in Fukuoka, usually. But this winter, I have had nabemono unusually often due to the unusually cold weather.

As a result, I have expanded my repertoire of nabemono recipes. For example:

 Curry nabe

(chicken thigh, turnip, brown enoki,  etc),

Kimuchi nabe

(sliced pork, bean sprouts, spring onion, etc),

Tomoto nabe

(meatballs, potatoes, cabbage, etc),

and Gyoza nabe

(Gyoza, Chinese chives, bean sprouts, etc).

By the way, this time, this little magazine, which had been sitting on a pile of cooking magazines for a long time untouched, helped me a lot.

In fact, this is the only magazine I buy regularly. It is like a textbook for housewives—very realistic (no balsamic vinegar, no gas oven), precise (every ingredient is indicated by the weight—not “a half of” or “a quarter of”) and reliable, telling me the basics of housekeeping as well as cooking with seasonal ingredients, and providing some light readings. Everything is written in very simple and "reserved" Japanese (I like this!). It might not be easily found at bookshops, but if there is a cooking class called “Better Home Kyokai (ベターホーム協会)” near where you are, you could get one at JPY200 (an extreme value for money!) there.