Cooking: Nabe (Japanese hot pot)

The weather is getting cooler where I live and this makes me think in cooking foods that are best for this season. I have been wanting to cook nabe, Japanese hot pot but since it is difficult for me to find ingredients, I have always set it aside. However, last weekend, I got the courage of cooking it using alternative ingredients but before giving up on the original ingredients, my two sister in-laws and I spent more than four hours at the supermarket looking for them. I was hoping the universe will suddenly drop all the ingredients I need! hahaha! Unfortunately, the universe was a little selfish that day! 

The ingredients I used are:

• Beef - sukiyaki cut. I won't have the patience in cutting a regular cut beef into thin ones so I just closed my eyes and bought this even it was expensive. 
•  Beef broth - Knorr beef cubes is the best and easiest one to find. Don't judge me but I tried my best to find dashi but I couldn't. 
• Soy sauce - I also tried looking for a Japanese soy sauce but there's none so I used Kikkoman soy sauce (I so loved the smell and the taste!)

• Tofu - I love tofu, whatever the recipe is. Of course, I picked the Japanese tofu. It's so soft, you don't have to chew it when eating. I think you know what I mean!
• Chinese cabbage
• Carrots
• Onion leeks 
• Onions - When I cook, I want onions to be present in all my recipes! Many of my friends always say, they are confused weather I am a Filipino or Indian or Korean and so on...LOL! I wish I can bring my own onions when I eat out. 
• Noodles - After mini mini mowing at the international section as to which noodles I will use, I decided to pick this one. 

As you can see, I just used a few ingredients. I was hoping to buy shitake mushroom but it is damn expensive!  Also, I wanted to have sake, a Japanese rice wine which I think is perfect for this recipe but as I said earlier, the universe was a little selfish that time. I then bought red wine!

Right after we came home from the supermarket, I asked the people at home to do the washing, peeling and chopping. They were all excited so it was done in no time.

While simmering it, I took a photo of it and then I realized I forgot adding the tofu and onions! I almost freak out! I almost missed my favorites!

Finally, it was done after simmering it for another five minutes good enough for the tofu and onions to be half-cooked.

I told my in-laws I will be eating later because I still have classes but then the smell and the taste was irresistible!  I had two bowls of it!  All I can hear was the sound of the spoons, my in-laws were busy savoring the new dish!

I told my husband to go home earlier and so he did. He's having colds so it was a perfect dinner for him! My father in-law had a guest that time; his drinking buddy. After tasting the dish, he said "Can you cook more next weekend?"  I said, sure!