
The pot that passion.
Although I had never been to Japan in winter, I had the opportunity to discover this dish.
For those who do not know, Nabe means "pot" and is a typical winter dish in Japan.
mettondo is prepared to taste a variety of ingredients such as vegetables, vegetables, mushrooms, meat, fish, shellfish, mushrooms, depending on your taste and availability in a clay pot and cooked on a portable stove directly on table where the diners control the cooking and serve themselves. E 'then a typical dish that you eat with your family in the winter, sitting on the ground and warmed by the kotatsu. And cooking on the table helps create a warm atmosphere.

As the ingredients come to cook and eat at the end, in the remaining broth, pour a little 'rice or udon, in order to complete the dinner.
In fact, the first approach to the nabe was not just exciting. We were in Italy. One evening in late summer invite us to dinner. The only Italian I am. Will that maybe we were too many people for too few ingredients, but I found myself in front of a big pot full of salty water, which floated a bit lonely 'Chinese cabbage, a little' thinly sliced \u200b\u200bmeat and a little 'tofu. At the end of cooking, however, the ingredients tasted inconsistent, and even the udon final result was rather tasteless. If this was nabe, I could very well do without.
Eventually, however, someone warned me, "Look, this is not just a nice nabe."
It so happened that a few months later, turning in a department store, be exposed in pots of clay, very similar to a nabe. Were Chinese, but very similar to the Japanese nabe, both in the pot for the lid. On the package the importer had written "fire pot", to be just above the stove, without protection, as is done with the normal nabe. I could not resist and bought it.
dusted off the portable stove (rather difficult to find in Italy) and recovered with difficulty the ingredients in the evening we had our first family nabe. Completely different and delicious.
Since then at least a couple of times a month in winter, the nabe is required.
regard to the ingredients, the nabe is no room for a lot of imagination: any of vegetables that we enjoy is welcome. Should not fail, however, tofu and daikon. Meat, fish, shellfish or crustaceans can enrich the dish, but it depends on taste and wallet. My absolute favorite is the kani-nabe, the pot with the crabs and scallops. Truly a delicacy.
Even if the base is completely different, reminds me of the native Cacciucco.
Ooops ... but this is just a surplus. ;-)