• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Recipes
    • By meal
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / dinner
      • Snacks
    • By main ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By carb
      • Rice
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • Kitchen how-tos
    • Cooking ingredients
    • Kitchen tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Newsletter
  • Recipes
    • By meal
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / dinner
      • Snacks
    • By main ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By carb
      • Rice
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • Kitchen how-tos
    • Cooking ingredients
    • Kitchen tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Newsletter

Home style hot pot dining

03.16.2015 (Updated: 03.31.2022)

You don’t need restaurant-grade equipment for a delicious hot pot meal at home. A single-burner tabletop gas stove, good broth and the right mix of ingredients are all you require.

Enjoying shabu-shabu (hot pot) meal at home

A short history of the hot pot

There is a common misconception that restaurant hot pot dining is the original and the norm, and home-style hot pot cooking is a mere version. Not so.

Historically, hot pot cooking was done at home. From what I’ve read, the practice originated in China where it has been enjoyed for over a thousand years. Meat was the main ingredient.

Hot pot dining spread to neighboring Asian countries and variations multiplied. Although the cooking method remained the same, the ingredients cooked in the simmering broth and the dipping sauces that went with them varied from one country to the next. It came to be known as shabu-shabu in Japan and Taiwan, lau in Vietnam and suki in Thailand.

Today, food that can be cooked in the hot pot can be just about anything — meat, poultry, seafood, dumplings, vegetables, mushrooms, eggs… There is no hot pot recipe then? Of course there isn’t.

Hot pot is NOT a dish; it is a cooking method and a dining style

Hot pot cooking means cooking small pieces of food in broth that is kept simmering on the table all throughout the meal.

Setting up a shabu-shabu meal at home

Meat is cut very thinly so that it gets fully cooked in a matter of minutes. Vegetables, tofu, seafood and other ingredients are cut into bite-size pieces so that they can be fished out easily from the broth and dropped directly into individual bowls.

Hot pot dining means each person chooses which ingredients he likes, picks them up from an array of serving plates, drops them into the hot broth then retrieves them when they’re done.

The trick, of course, is to cook food in small amounts so that they don’t get cold before they are eaten. Additionally, as the meal progresses, and as more food gets cooked, the broth becomes richer and tastier.

What do you need to set up a home version of the hot pot?

A portable sing gas burner for home style shabu-shabu (hot pot)

The hot pot itself which consists of a stove and a cooking vessel. A portable single-burner gas stove works best. Unlike electric models, you don’t have to deal with with a cable that problematically runs across the tabletop, down to the floor and all the way to the wall where it would be plugged.

Then, you need a vessel in which to boil broth. You’ll want something that’s wide and not too deep so that it is easy to see the food as it cooks, know if it’s done and lift it out with tongs or chopsticks with no need to dig all the way to the bottom of the pot.

Chopsticks for those adept at using them. For those who are not, tongs or slotted ladles are recommended. A soup ladle to get some of that delicious broth into your bowl.

Of course, you’ll want broth. Lots of broth. We prefer homemade (pork/beef, chicken or duck, fish or shrimp). Ideally, the broth must be boiled on a regular stove before the pot is moved to the hot pot stove. The gas canister has only so much life in it and it’s best to keep the heat low and the broth at simmering point. A tip: have extra broth for refills.

Home style shabu-shabu (hot pot)

What food is good for a hot pot meal? Sukiyaki-cut beef, mushrooms, vegetable dumplings, rice noodles, spinach, bok choy, corn and assorted vegetarian balls…

You’ll also want a dipping sauce or a variety of dipping sauces. Whatever you prefer, really. You can have plain soy sauce, chili sauce or something more customized such as my daughter’s garlic and black bean sauce.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, the blog owner earns commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

In the spotlight

A stack of pancakes, made from scratch, topped with butter and drizzled with honey

Make perfect fluffy pancakes from scratch

Soy sesame scallion noodles

Soy sesame scallion noodles

Soy chili garlic ginger beef tendon

Beef tendon with soy chili garlic ginger sauce

Air fried crispy pata (pork hock) with dipping sauces

Air fried crispy pork hock

Shrimp spring rolls

Hungry for more?

Subscribe to the newsletter to get the latest posts in your inbox.

No spam. Read the privacy policy.

More Dining

Dining room

Does airing pillows and mattresses under the sun disinfect and deodorize them?

Buffet cabinets next to the dining table

Difference between buffet and smorgasbord

Gravy in pink Noritake gravy boat

Where was the gravy boat first used?

Japanese stoneware plate and bowls

Why do Japanese bowls come in different sizes?

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Home cook and writer by passion, photographer by necessity, and good food, coffee and wine lover forever. I write recipes, cooking tips and food stories. No AI is used in creating content for this blog.

More about me and Umami Days.

  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • No AI
  • Contact

Created by a human for humans · Copyright © 2025 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved