Shabu Shabu with the in-laws

Shabu Shabu is a Japanese dish with Chinese origins which features thinly sliced beef in boiling water. Beef is the common meat used, but you can also use pork, chicken, duck, lamb or lobster. Beef and Pork are the most common meats used in Korea. 

The in-laws dropped by for lunch on their way back to Suwon today, so we took them for Vietnamese Shabu Shabu which is a little different to the Japanese variant. In Vietnam they wrap the meat with some of the side dishes in rice paper before eating it. It's kind of a 3 course meal. 

1. Wrap the meat and side dishes in rice paper before eating. 
2. Once you have finished all the rice paper wraps, throw some noodles in the pot and make a noodle soup with the leftovers. 
3. By now there isn't a lot of water left. Throw in some pre-cooked rice and make kind of a rice porridge. 

In the middle of the table is a pot of boiling water where you throw the meat and vegetables. While you are eating, it continues to cook and boil away.

The thinly sliced beef. Don't add it all at once. It cooks really quickly in the boiling water. 

Dip the rice paper in the bowl of hot water to soften it and make it sticky. 

Lay it flat on your plate and fill it with meat and side dishes.  

Wrap it up and eat it in one bite. 

Here is the 3rd and final stage of Shabu Shabu, the rice porridge. 

Once the Shabu Shabu was all gone, we served ourselves some ice cream (often free with meals in Korea) and then, stomachs full, waddled off home.