I never thought eating shabu-shabu alone could be this lively (Shabu-Yo report)

My first time eating shabu-shabu alone.

But I wasn't the only one moving my chopsticks.

The words of the people I've met until now were truly riding on my back.

I went to "Shabu-Yo".I made a reservation for the 11:00 AM opening and arrived right as they opened.
I was the first one there.

On weekdays, lunch has no time limit until 4:00 PM.

Theoretically, I could eat shabu-shabu for five hours.

I don't mind doing things alone.
I can travel alone.
I can go to yakiniku alone.
I can go to the movies, karaoke, the aquarium, and the zoo alone.

But doesn't an all-you-can-eat place somehow smell like a festival?
Everyone comes together, someone takes too much, someone says, "If you want to get your money's worth, go for the vegetables," someone brings the soup, and everyone goes, "Oh, there's soup?"

I thought that all-you-can-eat was about that kind of group chaos.

This time, I participated in that alone for the first time.

I was shown to a booth.
It's spacious. The seat across from me remained empty the whole time.

First, I choose the menu.
I intended to go with the cheapest "Pork Loin + Chicken All-You-Can-Eat Course (1,649 yen including tax)." With pork loin and chicken, you can be perfectly happy.

However, the moment I looked at the menu, the voice of a former friend, who was pickier about meat than anyone else, came back to me.

"Pork shoulder loin is the real deal."

Back in the day, he used to sleep on the classroom floor during lunch break. Even though he slept on the floor, he was strict about meat."Even with the same pork loin, the tenderness is different. For pork shabu-shabu, shoulder is the only choice."That's what he said. So, I decided on the second cheapest, the "Course that also includes pork shoulder loin (1,869 yen including tax)." I bought my friend's advice for an extra 220 yen.

Ordering via tablet makes extra charges and such easy to understand. You can choose "White Dashi" and one other type. This time, I ordered the "Authentic Sukiyaki Dashi." Speaking of chicken, it has to be sukiyaki. I love chicken sukiyaki.

Once I finished ordering, I went to get the sauce and vegetables first.
Shabu-Yo has a "Sauce BAR."Sauces and condiments are all-you-can-take.

Next, I choose the vegetables.

That's when I remembered my mother's words from when she used to make hot pot.

If you put in a lot of mushrooms first, it releases a broth that makes it delicious. Putting in Chinese cabbage first also makes it sweet and delicious.

I already know that the essence of shabu-shabu is vegetables.I already know that.

When I returned to my seat, the pot was already set up.
Next, the meat arrived.
First, one plate each of pork shoulder loin, pork loin, and chicken.

By the way, the meat is brought by a cat-shaped serving robot.
Humans making cats carry meat.

This is where the real challenge begins.
Actually, I don't cook.Saying 'I don't' sounds a bit pretentious, but in reality, it's closer to 'I can't'.

No, strictly speaking, I can make things like amateur omurice, dark-matter rice porridge, or desperate grilled fish. But if you call those cooking, then turning on a faucet is also a water utility business.

Even so, I consider shabu-shabu to be cooking. It's not just the act of swimming meat in hot water. It's a live kitchen where you design the pot in real-time, arrange the ingredients, watch how the heat penetrates, adjust the broth concentration, and keep creating the perfect bite for this very moment. Shabu-shabu is not a passive meal.

Everyone who sits in front of a pot is suddenly appointed as the head chef.

First, put the vegetables into the pot.
Shimeji mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, green onions, Chinese cabbage, and tofu.

I thought I brought a mountain of them, but once I put them in the pot, it wasn't nearly enough. The moment vegetables enter the pot, they suddenly become humble.

I don't particularly like tofu. But the moment I saw the tofu at the vegetable corner,I thought, 'I want to be the kind of person who can pick up tofu here.'I thought.

Once the vegetables are cooked, I add the meat.

First, the pork loin. Delicious. Even though it's thin, it's definitely meat. When cooked, it curls up, and its presence increases along with its flavor.

Next, the chicken. This is also juicy and delicious. However, chicken makes me a little nervous. Because it's thick, I have to be especially careful to check if it's cooked through.

Here, the boss's voice comes back to me.

'Make sure to cook pork and chicken thoroughly.'

He was the boss of the hotel where I used to work part-time. There is no humor in food poisoning. Even if it tastes good, it's pointless if you get an upset stomach. This is the reason why humanity obtained fire.

And then, the pork shoulder loin. Delicious. It's truly tender. Even though they share the same 'pork' and 'loin' names, can they really be this different? That guy who was sleeping on the floor was right. Shoulder loin is the real deal.

When the pot starts to warm up, I can't help but want to bring it to a boil.

It feels like it's doing its job when it's bubbling away.
But then, a different voice spoke up.

“If you let the broth boil, it’s easier for scum to come out of the meat, so it’s better not to let it bubble too much.”

It was the middle-aged lady.

Once again, it was the lady from my old part-time job.
A long time ago, when I ran into her at the supermarket meat section, she taught me this while holding a pack of shabu-shabu meat. “Make sure you teach your future wife this, too,” she said, before disappearing into the bargain corner. I still don't have a wife. But her lesson remains.

I turned the heat down a little. I suppressed my urge to let it boil. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had learned self-control through a hot pot.

The sukiyaki broth goes so well with rice.
Even though it's all-you-can-eat, you absolutely must order white rice. Place the pork loin dipped in the sukiyaki broth onto the white rice. The sauce soaks into the rice. Put the meat and rice in your mouth together. In that moment, all thoughts of calculating whether I was getting my money's worth disappeared.I am here not to eat a lot, but to be happy.

I also ate pudding in between.
Shabu-Yo also has all-you-can-eat desserts. You put the jelly base and custard base into a cup, add soft-serve ice cream, mix it, and wait 30 seconds to make something like pudding. I wrote “something like pudding” because I couldn't really judge if it was actual pudding or not.

To be perfectly honest, the taste was as close to “pudding flavor” as you can get. But it’s delicious. It doesn't matter if it's the real thing or not. If my tongue says it's pudding, then it's pudding.There are moments when the tongue is stronger than the law. In the end, I ate two cups.

I also ate curry.
A curry with the rich flavor of meat thoroughly dissolved into it. It’s good, just like normal. However, if you eat curry with such a strong presence of meat after eating meat in a hot pot, a meat reunion starts in your stomach. Personally, I thought it might be nice to have an escape route like a light vegetable curry. But since I’m eating curry while calling it an escape route, my words aren't trustworthy.

I also ate a waffle.
This had the highest mental hurdle. A man in his late twenties standing alone in front of a waffle machine.It was the middle of a weekday. The place was bustling with couples and groups of women. In the middle of that, I poured in the waffle batter, closed the lid, and waited for two minutes.

Once it was done, I decorated it with soft-serve ice cream and sauce. It was crispy, light, and delicious. All-you-can-eat waffles are usually undercooked and heavy, expanding in your stomach the moment you eat them. The kind that feels like a damp blanket. But Shabu-Yo’s waffles are light. They are the best all-you-can-eat waffles I’ve ever had. Getting carried away, I ate two.

Totally satisfied!!

Since there is no time limit until 4:00 PM, I initially thought, “I’ll stay as long as I can.” I even thought I might read a book in the middle and go back to the meat again. But I left after about 90 minutes.When people are satisfied, they want to cherish the “end.”I was able to end it nicely.

This time, I visited the restaurant for a note project in collaboration with Shabu-Yo called #SoloMealThatFillsTheHeart. Since there was a project like this, I assumed there would be a fair number of solo diners, but the restaurant was almost full during lunchtime, and I was the only one eating alone.

But, strangely, I didn't feel lonely.

If I had come with someone, I think I would have been worried about the number of meat slices or what to get next, or the flow of the moment. But because it was a solo meal, I was able to slowly recall the words remaining inside me.

I put them into the pot little by little, and I ate alone.

In the end, the Shabu-Yo hot pot turned everything into a single broth.