Soup for dinner

Going out to dinner in Japan tends to be carb and protein heavy.  Many of the most popular dishes are very low in the vegetable department.  Tonkatsu (pork cutlets) may be served with cabbage, but that is it.  You can choose to eat edamame (green soybeans) with your sushi, but it isn't a full serving of vegetables.  There might be a little bit of green onions or bamboo shoots or seaweed in the ramen,  but just a bite or two compared to the whole bowl of noodles.

As a person who loves vegetables, I am saddened by this for a variety of reasons.  I like to eat a diet with lots of vegetables.  I try to include vegetables in every meal - sometimes succeeding more than others.  And I grow them, because it is a beautiful thing to watch them grow and change from just a tiny seed to a glorious vegetable. 

We've been in the mood to eat vegetables a lot lately.  We've been eating in restaurants frequently due to all the visitors and have been up to our eyeballs in heavy food.  So when we visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku, we were determined to find a healthy dinner.  For us, that means eating lots of vegetables.  Chanko nabe is one of those delightful, vegetable laden cuisines.  This special soup is described as sumo stew, as it is often made for sumo wrestlers.  It is really popular in the Ryogoko area, where the sumo stadium is located, as well as several sumo stables.

Chanko nabe is relatively healthy, low in fat and loaded with vegetables.  It has a ton of ingredients - fish, pork, chicken, sea scallops, shrimp, two types of mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, two types of tofu, daikon, carrots, leeks, bok choy, glass noodles (clear noodles made with potato starch), all in a dashi broth.  It is a lot of food, but delicious! 

Nabe is a soup cooked in the middle of the table.  The pot is filled with yummy ingredients and after cooking, everyone can take out what they want to eat.  Nabe, in itself, is very filling.  But the soup isn't the last course!  Once all the vegetables and meat are consumed, there is a final course with either rice or noodles.  The carbs are put into the broth and soak up all the delicious flavors. 

Since we were eating with friends, we ordered a smaller nabe and a couple of sides.  The kids, of course, got kid's meals.

A sumo-sized croquet with a curry sauce.

A variety of fish cakes.

Udon, ketchup rice, minced chicken patty, fried shrimp, and mango pudding.

By the time you walk out of the restaurant, it is more of a waddle than a saunter.  But it was all worthwhile.  And vegetables galore!