Beef and tofu are staple ingredients of Japanese 'nabe' (hot pot) cooking, but by adding things like enoki mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and fish cakes, you can create a really delicious soup.
Chatting with your friends about their latest news amongst all the steam and watching eagerly as the ingredients boil away in the pot is really fun. Dessert today, after I returned home, was chocolate flavored Pocky.