Most nabemono are stews and soups served during the cold winters of Japan. In modern Japan, nabemono are kept hot at the dining table by portable gas ranges owned by almost all Japanese people. By serving at the table, all the diners choose the ingredients they want from the pot. This is considered an important feature of nabemono; Japanese people believe that several people eating from one pot makes for a closer relationship. The Japanese thus say, Nebe wo Kakomu ("sitting around the pot"), implying that sharing nabemono will create warm relations between the diners who eat together in the steam from the shared pot.
In Japan, the most popular nabemono is called "yosenabe". "Yose" means putting together. The name thus implies that all things (e.g., meat, fish, egg, tofu and vegetables) can be enjoyably cooked together in a nabe pot. Yosenabe are typically based on a broth made with Miso or soy sauce flavourings.
Another popular Nabemono is Chankonabe. Chankonabe was originally served only to Sumo wrestlers. Chankonabe is served with more ingredients than other nabemono. It includes rice and noodles, for example. The larger portions help Sumo wrestlers maintain their substantial weight.
Nabemono is a Japanese traditional dish. It is sometimes called just “Nabe”. Many kinds of ingredients are put and boiled in the clay pot. When the ingredients are boiled up, people pick it up and eat with some sauce. Usually people use one clay pot at the same time. Japanese people show the relationship of trust each other by eating Nabemono from one pot. On the other hand, “Hitori-nabe” became popular among people who live alone recently. Hitori means alone, so Hitori-nabe means eating-alone-nabe. That is because nabemono is easy to cook and useful to warm oneself.
There are local kinds of nabemono all parts of Japan.
Hokkaido: Ishikari-nabe The ingredients: salmon, salmon roe, Japanese radish, onion, tofu, konjak, cabbage, leek, corn marigold, shiitake mushroom
The Tohoku district: Kiritanpo (Kiritanbo)-nabe The ingredients: kiritanpo, chicken, burdock, parsley, leek, thin konjak
The Kanto district: Houtou-nabe The ingredients: pumpkin, chinese cabbage, carrot, taro, houtou noodle
The midland district: Momiji-nabe (venison-nabe) The ingredients: venison, burdock, shiitake mushroom, leek, konjak, tofu, green vegetables
The Kansai district: Syabu-syabu The ingredients: thinly sliced beef, vegetables
The Chugoku district: Fuguchiri The ingredients: the slices of blowfish, corn marigold, chinese cabbage
The Shikoku district: Benkei no na jiru The ingredients: duck, wild boar, chicken, beef, pork, japanese radish, carrot, mizuna (a kind of chinese cabbage), hiru (a kind of shallot), dumpling made by buckwheat and rice (Na means green vegetables and Jiru means the soup)
The Kyusyu district: Mizutaki The ingredients: chicken, tofu, burdock, shiitake mushroom, hackberry, bean-starch vermicelli, egg, leek (Mizu means water and Taki means boiling)
People usually eat nabemono with the sauce. There are several kinds of sauce.
Ponzu: The common pon-zu is made of soy sauce and juice pressed from a bitter orange, sweet sake, stock of kelp Sesame sauce: The common sesame sauce is made of kneaded sesame, soy sauce, stock of kelp, sake and sugar
Sometime people put some spices, which are called yakumi, into the sauce.
For example, grated garlic, butter, red pepper, a mixture of red pepper and other spices, roosted sesame, momiji oroshi (a mixture of grated radish and red pepper)