すき焼き
すきやき
sukiyaki
= sukiyaki / sweet soy-simmered beef hot pot
Thin-sliced beef sizzling in a shallow iron pot, a sweet soy broth bubbling around it, and a cracked raw egg waiting on the side — sukiyaki is the dish Japanese families bring out when something has gone right and it’s time to celebrate at the table.
Sukiyaki most likely gets its name from suki (鋤), a farming spade, plus yaki, meaning to grill: field workers are said to have grilled meat or fish right on the flat blade of a spade over an open fire, and the name stuck even after the cooking moved to an iron pot. The modern dish is paper-thin beef, negi (long onion), shungiku (edible chrysanthemum greens), tofu, and shirataki noodles simmered together in warishita, a mix of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin that turns the broth glossy and sweet rather than salty. Diners then dip each hot piece into a small bowl of beaten raw egg before eating, which cools the food instantly and coats it in a silky layer that mellows the sweetness of the broth. How the pot gets started actually splits Japan in two: the Kanto region (around Tokyo) pours in pre-mixed warishita from the start, while the Kansai region (around Osaka and Kyoto) sears the beef in the dry pot first, then seasons it directly with sugar, soy sauce, and sake before adding the vegetables.
Learners often lump sukiyaki together with shabu-shabu, but the two are almost opposites: shabu-shabu is beef swished briefly through a light kombu broth and dipped in a thin ponzu or sesame sauce, while sukiyaki beef simmers longer in a broth that is deliberately sweet and rich. The raw egg dip is technically optional, but it’s expected enough that skipping it needs no explanation while asking for an extra egg is completely normal — just check the egg is fresh, since it’s eaten uncooked. At a home sukiyaki dinner, don’t be surprised if one family member appoints themselves nabe-bugyou (“pot magistrate”) and starts directing exactly what goes into the pot and when, whether the rest of the table asked for guidance or not.
Everyday use
父の昇進祝いに、今夜はすき焼きにしようって母が言った。
Chichi no shoushin-iwai ni, konya wa sukiyaki ni shiyou tte haha ga itta.
Mom said we should have sukiyaki tonight to celebrate Dad’s promotion.
Casual / Social Media
関西風のすき焼き派なんだけど、みんな最初に肉焼く派？それとも割り下から？
Kansai-fuu no sukiyaki-ha nan da kedo, minna saisho ni niku yaku-ha? Sore tomo warishita kara?
I’m team Kansai-style sukiyaki — does everyone sear the meat first, or start with the warishita broth?
Formal / Cultural context
生卵につけるのは苦手かもしれませんが、すき焼きでは一般的な食べ方なので、まず一口試してみてください。
Nama tamago ni tsukeru no wa nigate kamoshiremasen ga, sukiyaki de wa ippan-tekina tabekata na node, mazu hitokuchi tameshite mite kudasai.
Dipping it in raw egg might feel unusual, but it’s the standard way to eat sukiyaki, so please try just one bite first.
Beef eating was largely avoided in Japan for centuries under Buddhist-influenced dietary customs, so when the Meiji government began actively promoting Western-style habits in the 1870s as a sign of “civilization and enlightenment,” beef hot pot restaurants called gyuunabe became a genuinely daring, fashionable novelty in Tokyo. That early beef-in-a-pot dish gradually developed regional variations and refinements over the following decades, eventually settling into the sweeter, more polished sukiyaki served today, which is why the dish still carries a faint sense of occasion rather than everyday routine.
Sukiyaki also became, almost by accident, one of the most famous Japanese words in the English-speaking world. In 1963, Kyu Sakamoto’s song “Ue o Muite Arukou” topped the US Billboard Hot 100, but American and British record executives worried the original title was too hard for listeners to remember, so a British label renamed it “Sukiyaki” simply because it sounded pleasantly Japanese, despite the song having nothing to do with the dish. It remains the only Japanese-language song ever to reach number one on the US charts, which means for a huge number of Americans, sukiyaki was the first Japanese word they ever learned.