Korean Shabu-Shabu at Home — the Three-Act Dinner

Tonight’s dinner: Deungchon-style shabu-shabu, delivered — with one hack. The beef came from the supermarket, since a tray of shabu-sliced beef costs less than the delivery add-on and you get more of it.

What is Korean shabu-shabu? Korea took the Japanese swish-swish hot pot and made it its own — a spicy, deeply seasoned broth loaded with mushrooms, minari (water dropwort), and bean sprouts. “Deungchon shabu” is a beloved Seoul style built around that fiery broth.

Paper-thin beef slices go into the bubbling broth for just a few seconds.

Here’s the thing about Korean hot pot: the meal has acts. After the beef is gone, the broth — now rich with everything that’s been through it — gets kalguksu (칼국수, knife-cut wheat noodles). The chewy noodles drink up the broth.

And then the finale every Korean waits for: bokkeumbap (볶음밥). Rice, chopped vegetables, and an egg go into the last of the broth and get fried down right in the pot.

You scrape up the crispy scorched bits at the bottom — the best part. Broth → noodles → fried rice, the full three-act run. With this many vegetables and mushrooms, it even feels like health food. Sort of.