few seconds, as the pieces are sliced paper thin so they will cook quickly. Putting all meat into the pot at one time may result in overcooking the meat. Cooked meat and vegetables are usually dipped in ponzu or goma (sesame seed) sauce before eating, and served with a bowl of steamed white rice. General order to put ingredients into the pot "shabu-shabu" some meat (The meat "dashi" will add some depth to the soup.) add ingredients which need some time to cook such as carrots, shiitake-mushrooms, chinese cabbage etc.) add ingredients which are fast to cook such as tofu, green onions, mizuna and Chinese cabbage leaves. Once the meat/fish and vegetables have been eaten, the soup stock will remain in the pot. The leftover broth from the pot can be customarily combined with rice, ramen or udon and the resulting dish is usually eaten last and called "Shime" in Japan. The variation with rice is also called Zosui. Sauces and dippings A variety of sauces can be used to dip the meat and vegetables, including ponzu sauce and sesame sauce. Restaurants usually provide soy sauce, sesame paste, ponzu and several other condiment options, such as spring onions and Japanese pickled carrots, so customers can make the sauce according to their own preferences. Shabu-shabu variations across Japan Most commonly meat (beef, pork or chicken) is used for Shabu-shabu but recently there are also increasing variations with vegetables or fish. For the variation with vegetables lettuce or sliced radish can be used. The fish variations are usually made with yellowtail (japanese: buri), amberjack (japanese: Kanpachi) or sea bream (japanese: tai). For some other more rare Shabu-Shabu variations octopus or crabs are used. When the cooked meat is served cold, it's called "Rei-shabu". Rei-shabu is often sold in convenience stores and supermarkets in Japan. Tohoku Region: Wakame Shabu-shabu ("Wakame no Shabu-shabu") Kansai Region: Conger (japanese: Hamo) Shabu-shabu ("Hamo-Shabu") Toyama Prefecture: Yellowtail (japanese: buri) Shabu-shabu ("Buri-Shabu") Hokkaido Prefecture: Octopus Shabu-shabu ("Tako-shabu") Kagoshima Prefecture: Kagoshima Kurobuta Shabu-shabu ("Kurobuta-Shabu") Nagoya: Nagoya-kochin (a famous japanese native breed chicken) Shabu-shabu ("Tori-Shabu") See also List of Japanese soups and stews Instant-boiled mutton, a similar Chinese dish References Japanese soups and stews Table-cooked dishes Beef dishes Taiwanese cuisine