Pop Japan

Chanko Nabe is one of the nabemono dishes of Japan. Nabe literally means "cooking pot," while mono literally means "things." Thus, nabemono is any dish cooked in one hot pot.

The food was initially seved only to sumo wrestlers, with ingredients that are needed for them to gain weight. The chanko nabe served on sumo tournaments are made of chicken because the Japanese believe that rikishis or professional sumo wrestlers need to be stable on just two legs, like the chicken, and not on four legs like the pig or the cow.

Photo by User:Toki-ho and User:Ananda. Licensed under Creative Commons. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

Tags: food, chanko nabe, nabemono, dishes of japan, sumo wrestlers, gain weight, rikishi, professional sumo wrestlers, chicken, pig, cow