The dish is usually made with thinly sliced beef, but some versions use pork, crab, chicken, lamb, duck, or
lobster. Most often,
ribeye steak is used, but less tender cuts, such as
top sirloin, are also common. A more expensive breed of cattle, such as
Wagyu, may also be used. It is usually served with
tofu and vegetables, including
Chinese cabbage,
chrysanthemum leaves,
nori (
edible seaweed), onions, carrots, and
shiitake and
enokitake mushrooms. In some places,
udon,
mochi, or
harusame noodles may also be served. The dish is prepared by submerging a thin slice of meat or a piece of vegetable in a pot of boiling water or
dashi (broth) made with
konbu (kelp) and stirring it. Normally, the raw meat is dipped into the hot stock for just a few seconds, as the pieces are sliced paper thin so they will cook quickly. Putting all meat into the pot at one time may result in overcooking the meat. Cooked meat and vegetables are usually dipped in
ponzu or
goma (sesame seed) sauce before eating, and served with a bowl of steamed
white rice. Shabu Shabu photo Don Ramey Logan.jpg|Sliced meat with sauces and two types of broth File:Shabu Shabu.jpg|Sliced meats File:新北-婧 Shabu (30744506532).jpg|Meat and vegetable broth
General order to put ingredients into the pot • "shabu-shabu" some meat (the meat juices will add some flavor to the soup) • add ingredients which need some time to cook such as carrots, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, etc. • add ingredients which are fast to cook such as tofu, green onions, mizuna and Chinese cabbage leaves. Once the meat/fish and vegetables have been eaten, the soup stock will remain in the pot. The leftover broth from the pot can be customarily combined with rice, ramen or udon and the resulting dish is usually eaten last and called
shime in Japan. The variation with rice is also called
zosui. When the cooked meat is served cold, it is called
rei-shabu, which is often sold in convenience stores and supermarkets in Japan. ==Sauces and dippings==