MARY FURR -- DINING OUT

If you bypass table service when dining Japanese style, you have four

ways to go. There’s sushi with its picture-perfect raw creations, teppan

grill with the tossed knives and juggling chef, cleverly packaged dim

sum, or the hands-on approach of shabu-shabu. The latter is the most fun.

With shabu-shabu, you are not a spectator, but a participant cooking your

own meats and vegetables in a pot of boiling water.

California Shabu-Shabu, at Brookhurst Street and Garfield Avenue in

Fountain Valley, is one of the best places for such cuisine. A U-shaped

Formica dining counter with low chairs to the left and bar-height stools

to the right encloses a runway for servers bringing in shining, covered,

stainless steel pots of filtered water with strips of nori (algae) for

seasoning to place on a burner before your seat.

A small, stand-up menu lists your choices -- beef, chicken, shrimp or

mussels. Lunch runs from $6.50 to $10.50, dinner from $10.99 to $22.99.

Your order given, a plate of fresh, uncooked vegetables arrives. Chunks

of cabbage, a pile of bright green spinach leaves, little spring onions

and bits of garlic lie next to thick Japanese udon noodles. These are the

basics that accompany another plate of thinly sliced beef, pieces of

white chicken and gray, tail-on shrimp. A plate of steamed rice scooped

from a big pressure cooker arrives along with two bowls of dipping sauce

-- one a thin soy mix, the other a thicker mustard-colored sesame.

Now the fun begins. The latent chef in you takes over, and you add bits

of garlic, onion, daikon (Japanese radish) and other seasoning to prepare

the bowls for the meat you will put in the boiling water and

“swish-swish” or “shabu-shabu.”

The chicken and vegetables cook quickly, then are lifted out of the pot

-- with chopsticks if you’re handy or a small strainer if you’re not --

and are dipped into the soy sauce. The cooked beef is dipped into the

sesame. The shrimp, now pink, will need to cook a little longer. Placed

on top of a bowl of steamed rice, each cooked piece seasons the dish as

it cools to eating temperature.

Owner Wayne Atchley says he fell in love with the shabu-shabu method of

cooking -- the healthy freshness and mildness of it -- and knew he had to

start a place of his own and share the method with others. He opened his

attractively decorated storefront location, which is in a Japanese strip

mall, a little more than two years ago. He has been swamped with

customers ever since.

Despite the rain on a recent Monday, California Shabu-Shabu was a haven

for businessmen and women, a father with his two young daughters and

hungry vegetarians. All were friendly and eager to share their seasoning

secrets at this unique Japanese restaurant where you are your own chef.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments or

suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

FYI

CALIFORNIA SHABU-SHABU

WHERE: 18908 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley

HOURS: Lunch --11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Dinner --

5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Closed Wednesday.

CALL: 963-8844

MISC: California Shabu-Shabu is online at https://www.calshabushabu.com.

Credit cards are accepted.