Japanese hotpot

Saturday is my husband's turn to cook and usually this means we have a big pot of curry, or perhaps spaghetti. I'm not complaining about the lack of variety - a day off from cooking is a great thing! Recently he has also discovered the ease of making Japanese "hotpot" and I would have to say that I love it. For anyone new to "nabe" it basically means boiling up a flavoured stock, adding whatever veges, meat, tofu etc. you have on hand, eating it directly from the pot at the table and continually adding more stuff as it disappears into your stomachs. Finishing off by adding lots of rice and beaten egg is also an easy way to get very full fast! It is also great way to take the chill off a room without going as far as lighting the fire.
One of the benefits of my husband making this kind of dish is that his "normal" ingredients vary greatly to mine and therefore my children get to experience a lot more flavours than if I did all the cooking. Tonight's "surprise" was whole small globe fish (aka blowfish) which he bought already skinned and gutted and beheaded - and which were not the poisonous kind! I would have to say that I am not a fan of whole fish and so I stuck to the chicken balls, but the kids loved it and happily cleaned up my serving too. I wonder what new ingredient will greet us next Saturday....