Motsu Nabe: Fukuoka's Offal Hot Pot and Its Cultural Identity

Ingredients

• For the offal
• 600 g beef small intestine (ko-motsu), cleaned, sourced fresh from a Japanese butcher if possible
• For the broth
• 1 litre chicken dashi (tori dashi), rich, well-reduced
• 60 ml sake
• 30 ml mirin
• For the broth (miso variant)
• 60 g miso, or substitute 60 ml shōyu for the soy variant
• For the broth
• 4 cloves garlic, 2 cloves minced into broth; 2 cloves sliced, reserved for final minutes
• 2 dried togarashi chili, added directly to the pot
• For the vegetables
• 400 g nira (garlic chives), cut into 5 cm lengths
• 400 g cabbage, cut into rough 5 cm pieces
• For shime
• 200 g champon noodles, or cooked rice, to finish the remaining broth
• To finish
• 1 tsp sesame oil, added at the table
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (goma), whole, for finishing

Method

1. 1
   Blanch the beef small intestine in a large pot of unsalted boiling water for 3–4 minutes. Drain and rinse thoroughly in cold water, removing any residual fat or impurities by hand. Discard the blanching water entirely. The intestine should smell clean and neutral — any persistent off-odour indicates insufficient rinsing.
2. 2
   Combine the chicken dashi, sake, mirin, and minced garlic in a wide clay pot or heavy casserole set over medium heat. For the miso variant, whisk the miso into the hot dashi until fully dissolved. For the shōyu variant, stir in the shōyu in its place. Add the dried togarashi directly to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and taste — the broth must be assertively seasoned, deeply savory, and carry clear garlic warmth; offal demands a broth of this strength to achieve balance rather than heaviness.
3. 3
   Add the cleaned intestine to the simmering broth. Cook at a steady, gentle simmer until the offal is tender with slight resistance when pressed — it should yield without collapsing and resist any pull toward gelatinous softness. This is where the dish lives or dies: offal removed too early is rubbery; offal left too long dissolves into the broth and loses the textural identity that defines motsu nabe.
4. 4
   Arrange the cabbage over the surface of the pot in a generous mound — it should visibly exceed the volume of offal beneath it. Lay the nira on top of the cabbage. Add the reserved sliced garlic across the surface. Cover and cook for 2–3 minutes only. Lift the lid: the nira should have wilted just slightly at the edges while the centres remain upright and vivid green. The cabbage should have softened but not collapsed. This balance of freshness against richness is the dish's character.
5. 5
   Bring the pot directly to the table over a portable burner. Add a few drops of sesame oil and scatter sesame seeds across the surface. Serve immediately from the pot, ladling offal, vegetables, and broth into individual bowls. Once the main portions are eaten, add champon noodles or rice to the remaining broth — the shime. Cook the noodles 2–3 minutes in the residual liquid; the broth thickens and the noodles absorb its full depth. The pot is finished when the broth is consumed.