sukiyaki vs. shabu shabu

I could never figure out the difference between sukyaki and shabu-shabu, but Dan wanted to try them both before we left Japan.  We ended up going to a really nice restaurant in Kyoto that specializes in high quality beef.  For some reason, shabu shabu is super expensive in Japan.  I guess they always use high quality beef.  

 

Turns out sukiyaki is beef that's cooked in a soy sauce, sugar, and mirin broth.  It is pretty heavily flavored (slightly sweet), so it goes best with raw egg.  (If you are like me and are slightly freaked out about eating raw eggs, apparently the Japanese have no qualms about it because the regulations on egg cleanliness is very strict!  They don't have problems with salmonella from raw eggs.)  I don't really like sukiyaki because the flavor is a bit too sweet for me.

 

Here is mine!  I got soy milk broth shabu shabu.  (Remember how I said I loved soy milk broths?  :))  Shabu shabu is thusly named because that's the sound your chopsticks make when swishing around in the pot.

 

Here is our premium grade beef for shabu shabu!