🍲 Negima-nabe (Tuna and Japanese leek pot dish)
"Negima-nabe," a tuna and Japanese leek pot dish, is a popular dish that originated in Edo (present-day Tokyo), consisting of "maguro (tuna) " and "negi (Japanese leek) " cooked in soy sauce. In the Edo period (1603-1867), the oily belly of the fish, known today as toro, was a vulgar dish that could not be served to customers. The red part was dipped in soy sauce and served as "zuke (a type of sushi), " but the fatty part, such as toro, was not suitable for preservation because of its quick-drying nature. In those days, there was no way to preserve the fatty part of the fish, so it was often cooked. The "Negima-nabe" is said to have been born from the idea of eating this fatty meat by cooking it together with Japanese leek and soy sauce. After the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867), the "Shichirin (small BBQ grill) " came out, and made it possible to take the stove to the guest room. That made the style of eating pot dish (nabe) popular, rather than using it as just a cooking utensil. The method of easily eating a small pot dish over a brazier is similar to the current scene of eating while cooking with a table-top cooking device.