NuM NuM

Tonight's meal was inspired from a potluck lunch I had with my girlfriends a few weeks ago. I love having a themed potluck meal since it's always so fun to see what everyone brings. Friend #1 made these mouth watering bacon wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese. I helped myself to about four, five, six...I stopped counting after six. Friend #2 brought noodles and the portable stove for the meal and friend #3 made the shabu shabu. I was assigned the dessert course and got lazy and bought red velvet cupcakes from a bakery...GASP...didn't make anything homemade.

I've always had shabu shabu at restaurants and didn't realize how fun it is to make it at home - especially if you have your own portable stove. Since everyone participates in making their own meal it's nice to just veg and chat. I highly recommend having a shabu shabu theme night for your next potluck :D

As for the meal, there's no exact recipe but more of a method. For the broth I pretty much followed this recipe but just added a bit more ingredients since I needed more water. After you make the broth, the rest is up to you. The choices are endless. I made mine with five baby bok choys cut into 2-inch pieces, 16 oz firm tofu, and 2 packages of enoki mushrooms. As for the sauce, I grated one korean radish (daikon), thinly sliced one green onion, and poured 3/4 cup of store bought ponzu sauce and put them in three separate bowls. That way, lobster and I could create our own dipping bowls. We also added some "La-Yu" chili oil to our bowls for some extra kick. Light, healthy and num num.