![]() ![]() Fried dumplings were filled with chicken, not pork, but still packed plenty of flavor within a light wrapper browned to a crisp on just one side, leaving the rest of the dough cooked but pliant. ![]() We also ordered a couple pre-cooked appetizers and simple maki rolls from the recently added sushi bar. After multiple turns and bastes, a pair of scissors cut the strips into bite size, and they could be folded into romaine leaves for eating. Pork belly came with sliced onion and jalapeños to help build flavor, as well as a thin basting sauce. The heat was rather modest, but the meats came sliced thin, so intensity was beside the point. Also set into the table was a sort of electric grill with slots for fat to drain. ![]() Suffice it to say that there was a learning curve. While the solicitous staff could direct us to the condiment bar, no one can, of course, tell another what will taste best to them, leaving us to experiment with familiar (soy sauce) and less familiar (“hot pot sauce”) dips. Here, our inexperience put us at a disadvantage. Although the broth was studded with aromatics like ginger and tamarind, most of the ingredients weren’t immersed in it for long enough to take on those flavors, and so relied upon the post-boil dipping sauces and condiments for rescue from utter blandness. The trick is not so much in the cooking but in the flavoring. Then you fish them out with a slotted ladle and finish with an array of sauces and condiments like minced garlic or cilantro. You order from a wide array of proteins, vegetables and starches, and then cook them in the broth to your taste: longer for roots, but briefly for greens and shaved meats. On paper, shabu shabu is fairly simple: You choose from three broths, which are delivered to your table in a pot and lowered into a receptacle with a heating element, such that the broth bubbles. On our visit, multiple servers stopped by to assist our party, both explaining the system and checking in to make sure things proceeded correctly, never condescending or interrupting. ![]() That’s not to say that less-experienced guests aren’t welcomed. From the cool colors and polished stone of modern, cosmopolitan Asia, to the few, if any, concessions to American tastes on the menu, Top Shabu Shabu caters to its dining room filled with Asian and Asian-American customers, effortlessly navigating the complexities of tabletop boiling and barbecue. It’s an unabashedly Asian restaurant other than the English on the menu, nothing about it is tailored to American expectations. Top Shabu Shabu is, perhaps, as much a testament to Pittsburgh’s growing Asian university population as to its long, cold winters. It’s related to sukiyaki, but with flavorings more savory than sweet. In shabu shabu, diners are provided with a menu of raw meats and vegetables, thinly sliced, which they cook themselves at the table in pots of boiling broth and eat with dipping sauces and condiments. Shabu shabu, in turn, takes its name from Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of cooking. In the heart of Oakland, Top Shabu Shabu takes its name from one of these styles of Japanese one-pot dining. But given Pittsburgh’s climate, is it any surprise that Japanese hot pots are finding a market here? We’re more surprised it has taken this long. Until recently, this was just another obscure corner of Japanese cuisine overlooked in the American affinity for sushi. Japan alone has several related but distinctive hot-pot traditions, together known as nabemono (“boiled things”). Many cultures have evolved styles of communal, one-pot cooking, especially those with winters that force people to huddle together indoors, seeking sources of heat and warm sustenance. ![]()
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