Shabu-Shabu: An Unsung Hero?

The Japanese culture is a big umbrella of multi-cultures that share common interests, and compliment with one another. Whether it deals with commercial media and traditional practices, to underground music of Japanese “Speedcore” and groundbreaking artwork, Japanese culture is full of serenity and harmony with all of these beautiful entities, if you want to call them “entities”.
I guess you can say I’m a bit biased to saying this because I immerse myself in this culture as much as possible. Particularly in the area of Japanese food, Japanese animated cartoons, or “Anime”, and I read a lot of their comics, or “Manga”. The particular subculture of Japanese art and storytelling really moves me. The stories are captivating and creative, always leaving a person wanting more. And for the food part—well, that’s a given. Japanese food is incredible.
This past week I had the opportunity to connect to other people like myself and really appreciate that particular subculture at a convention known as AnimeExpo, located in Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles. It started on July 1st to July 4th. This convention holds a wide collection of people who enjoy the Japanese animation subculture and more. People come together and watch television shows, talk about tea ceremonies, sell Japanese related items, and even mimic favorite characters by dressing up as them known as Cosplay. While I was there, I wanted to find out what people there knew about how much they knew about the Japanese culture in terms of food.
Sure, these people knew about sushi, ramen houses, street foods like “Takoyaki”, and BBQ houses, because they were displayed in many popular Japanese television shows and comics, but did they know of Shabu-Shabu? And I wanted to find out.
I spoke to a few native Japanese people who were there and I found out that Shabu was quite common. However, it seemed like it wasn’t really given the limelight that it should. It interested me because if that was the case, did non-natives who also attended the convention and who also appreciated the culture, knew of Shabu and thought of it on a different level just like Anime at Anime conventions?
I went around the convention, asking people what they knew of Shabu-shabu and the conclusion that I came up with is that it’s acknowledged but not really known because a lot of Anime show mainly ramen houses, sushi bars, and other eateries, since majority of Anime take place during summer time. Since Shabu-shabu is commonly known as a winter dish in Japan, I guess you can see why Shabu-shabu houses aren’t really featured in a popular Anime series. And although Shabu-shabu could be eaten year-round as well, Shabu houses featured in winter scenes in Anime help strengthen the setting of time, aside from the snow and mounds of winter clothing, since it’s been a standing tradition to do Shabu during winter season.
I feel that Anime should really bring about Shabu in more Anime series since a good majority of them feature everything else—why not do it? Making more Anime in the winter season will help avid Anime viewers really understand more about the culture. Maybe they should make an Anime revolving around Shabu-Shabu?
Nah. I’m pushing my luck =P

-John E. Torres (aka Jet)