Princess Jellyfish is an adorable show that has long been a favorite of mine. I've been assured the manga is also excellent, but no matter how you enjoy it, the story is really quite unique and fun! Everyone I know who has seen it loves it- it's especially great to watch with friends. The opening and closing are catchy, and overall it's a pretty feel-good show. 

In episode two, Kuranosuke invites *SPOILERSSSSSSSS* himself over for dinner, startling all of Tsukimi's housemates and making them flee for the hills. He interupts their weekly hot pot dinner, and tries to take over, inciting ire amongst the household. The kind of hot pot they are eating is Sukiyaki, a delicious salty-sweet broth used to cook meat and vegetables all together until food nirvana has been achieved. 

This is a pretty awkward moment in the show, but nonetheless I wanted to give it a go. I've been wanting to do hot pot recipes for awhile, and now the season for it is finally upon us! I was originally going to do tanuki hot pot from Eccentric Family, and that's still on the list, but having never made hot pot before I wanted to start with a relatively easy type of hot pot. I was really startled at how easy this was! I thought it would be really labor intensive, but as long as you can chop up some veggies and put together a simple sauce, this is actually a piece of cake.

Plus, it's super impressive to share with friends, and a fun interactive meal. I'm used to paying upwards of $20 for all-you-can-eat meals like this, and I was startled and amazed to find that all the ingredients came to ~$50 and more than fed 5 people. We were so full by the end of this, and I still have leftover meat in the freezer. 

All in all, this is a great meal to share with friends, especially to celebrate the new year and the end of 2016, the year from a place beyond hell. Did anyone else have a wild year? Would love to hear the craziest thing that happened to you in 2016. For me, it was probably almost getting shot at by some North Korean soldiers. 

Check out the video below for a visual on instructions. Ingredients are listed just below. 

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 1 cup sake
• 1 cup mirin
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar

Veggies/ Meat:

• Baby Bok Choy (~3 bunches)
• Napa Cabbage (~10 leaves)
• Negi/ Japanese green onion (~3 onions)
• Shiitake mushrooms (1 package)
• Enoki mushrooms (1 big bunch)
• Tofu (1 package)
• Shirataki noodles (1 bag)
• ~200 grams of meat/ person, either pork or beef. It needs to be thinly sliced hot pot meat. This kind of meat is usually available at Asian supermarkets. 
• Brown sugar
• Oil

You will also need steamed rice to eat with this! This is traditionally eaten with everyone gathered around a table that has a portable burner with a pan set up on it. There is a traditional cast iron pan you can use- I just used a pan I had on hand with an electric burner. 

To make: 

1. Pour sauce ingredients into a pan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside to be used when you cook.

2. Prepare veggies by cutting off ends, discarding wilted leaves, and cutting into bite sized pieces. 

3. Drain and rinse shirataki noodles.

4. Set meat on a plate to have ready to go.

5. Cook! First cook meat, sprinkling brown sugar over the top to caramelize it. Pour over a bit of sauce. When cooked, push to one side of the pan and add in veggies and more sauce. Let everything stew until veggies are tender. Then, dig in!