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 Gyūdon from a Yoshinoya restaurant | |
| Alternative names | gyūmeshi ('beef [and] rice'), beef bowl |
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| Place of origin | Japan |
| Main ingredients | rice, beef and onion |
Gyūdon (牛丼, "beef bowl") is is a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion simmered in a mildly sweet sauce flavored with dashi (fish and seaweed stock), soy sauce, and mirin (sweet rice wine). As described below, Shirataki noodles are sometimes simmered together as a remnant of the sukiyaki rice bowl. Gyūdon is also called gyūmeshi (, "beef [and] rice").
General Information edit
Gyūdon also known as gyūmeshi (, "beef [and] rice"), is a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion simmered in a mildly sweet sauce flavored with dashi (fish and seaweed stock), soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine). It was born in the Meiji era and at that time was called gyūmeshi. Eikichi Matsuda founded Yoshinoya (the second-largest chain of Gyūdon) in 1899 named Gyūdon. Sukiyaki rice bowl is also in the same category. From the remnants of sukiyaki, there are stores that add shirataki noodles, yaki-dofu, green onions, etc into bowls; however, at many regular Gyūdon chains, only beef and onions are placed into bowls. It is commonly eaten with beni shōga (pickled ginger), shichimi (ground chili pepper), and a side dish of miso soup. Furthermore, depending on the preference of the eater, it may sometimes also be served with toppings such as raw or soft poached eggs, Welsh onions (negi), grated cheese, or kimchi.
Gyūdon is often seasoned with soy sauce, but for Japan's first "salt beef bowl" released by Kobe Lamputei (a Japanese restaurant chain) on January 25, 2010, they used salt souse as the main seasoning. In addition, Kobe Lamputei also sold "Miso Gyūdon" for a limited time and developed the "Gyudon 3 Brothers Strategy" of soy sauce, salt, and miso in 2010. Menus that use a method of grilling beef may also be treated as a range of beef bowls, in which case it is called "yakimono bowl", and Tokyo Chikara Meshi (a Japanese fast-food chain) sold it as its main product. However, Kobe Lamputei has closed the Gyūdon business, and Tokyo Chikara Meshi has significantly reduced the scale of their Gyūdon business as well.
History edit
After the arrival of Buddhism in Japan in the 6th century, consumption of meat became rare in Japanese culture (especially those of four-footed animals such as beef or pork) and in many cases frowned upon, both for religious and practical reasons. It was only after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the subsequent westernization of the country that meat began to be widely eaten.[1][2]
Gyūdon is considered to be derived from gyūnabe (牛鍋), a beef hot pot originating in the Kantō region of eastern Japan. Gyūnabe originally consisted of cuts of beef simmered with Welsh onions and miso (as the beef available in Japan at the time were usually of poor quality, the meat was cooked this way to tenderize it and neutralize its foul smell), but by the late 1800s, a variation that used a special stock called warishita (割下) - a combination of a sweetener such as sugar or mirin and soy sauce - instead of miso and featuring additional ingredients such as shirataki (konjac cut into noodle-like strips) and tofu began to appear. This version of gyūnabe (known today as sukiyaki - originally the name of a similar yet distinct dish from the Kansai region) eventually came to be served with rice in a deep bowl (donburi), becoming gyūmeshi or gyūdon.[3]
By the 1890s, gyūmeshi had already become popular in Tokyo, but was yet unknown in other places such as Kyoto or Osaka. In 1899, Eikichi Matsuda opened the first Yoshinoya restaurant, at the fish market in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district. Gyūdon, under the moniker kamechabu, were also being sold in food stands (yatai) in the streets of Ueno and Asakusa.[3]
Originally disparaged as working-class food, gyūdon experienced a surge in popularity that transcended class boundaries in the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, when it was one of the food items readily available to the citizens of a devastated Tokyo.[4] It was around this time that gyūdon evolved further into its present form: a bowl of rice topped with thin slices of beef with onions (tamanegi).[5]
Although some establishments still offer gyūdon with a sukiyaki-like topping (i.e. containing ingredients such as shirataki or tofu), the dish as served in most major food chains nowadays simply consist of rice, beef and onions.
As fast food edit
Gyūdon can be found in many restaurants in Japan, and some fast food chains specialize exclusively in the dish. Many of these chain shops are open round the clock. The top three gyūdon chains in Japan are Sukiya (currently the largest gyūdon chain in Japan, established in Yokohama in 1981), Yoshinoya (the oldest and second largest, established in the Nihonbashi district of what is now Chūō, Tokyo in 1899), and Matsuya (established in Nerima, Tokyo in 1968).
Some of these establishments might refer to gyūdon by other names: Matsuya for instance sells gyūdon under the name gyūmeshi (牛めし), while Hanamaru Udon (はなまるうどん), a chain specializing mainly in Sanuki udon (currently a subsidiary of Yoshinoya), includes what it calls gyūniku gohan (牛肉ごはん, lit. "beef rice") in its menu.
While many establishments charge for miso soup or offer it as a part of a set, Matsuya is known for serving complimentary miso soup for customers who are eating in.
Service Characteristics of Gyūdon Chain Restaurants edit
Each gyūdon chain restaurant provides containers and sells Gyūdon as bento. There are chains that allow customers to specify how their gyūdon is served with code phrases like tsuyudaku (extra tsuyu broth) at no extra charge. It is called “special service” at Yoshinoya (A popular gyūdon chain). While the size of Gyūdon differs slightly among chain restaurants, at most places, there are small portions, medium portions, large portions, and extra-large portions. (Each chain has its own size).
Tsuyudaku
Tsuyudaku, in regards to gyūdon, is jargon that refers to one kind of specification where the juice and tsuyu mixture is served in large amounts. Tsuyunuki is where the amount of tsuyu is specified to be less than usual. Also, the term tsuyudakudaku is code for a larger amount of tsuyu. Sometimes, customers add more dakudaku at the end of the phrase like tsuyudakudakudakudaku to add more juice and tsuyu mixture to their gyūdon.
Negidaku and Neginuki
Negidaku and negunuki are two kinds of serving designations in gyūdon. Negidaku is a state where a large amount of onion is served as an ingredient, and Neginuki pulling is a state where onion is pulled out. While Yoshinoya (the second-largest chain of gyūdon) stopped accepting orders for negindaku and neginuki except for some stores in December 2007, they started accepting the orders again. Since that, negidaku has been on the new menu as a fee-charging. At Sukiya( a gyūdon chain) and Matsuya(a gyūdon chain) customers can order both negidaku and neginuki.
Increase/Decrease of the amount of ingredients
While it is not on the menu, there are some gyūdon chains where customers can change some toppings and the number of main ingredients they order for either a fee or free. At Matsuya(a gyūdon chain), customers can adjust the amount of Fukujinzuke (Sweet and Salty Sliced Vegetable Pickles) or remove some vegetables they hate from the salad. At Sukiya(a gyūdon chain), some past limited-time menus still exist as hidden menus. One of them is called the "King" size of gyūdon(940 yen, 6 times the amount of meat, 2.5 times the amount of rice). Another one is called "Petit" (130 yen, about 40% of the regular amount). Both of them are only available in stores and are not on the take-out menu. At Yoshinoya(a gyūdon chain), customers can adjust the amount of meat and rice, for example, a large serving of meat and a small amount of rice.
Regional Characteristics
As a regional characteristic of the gyūdon chain, Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Matsuya compete with each other on a scale of several hundred stores in the Kanto area. Furthermore, there is the largest number of Sukiya in the Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu areas, and more than twice as many Sukiya as the Yoshinoya in Shinetsu and Hokuriku. In the trend of metropolitan areas, Matsuya is by far the most numerous number in Tokyo, and in Osaka, the number of stores is a little out of the way when Nakau and Sukiya are combined. In some cases, they open stores as tenants at event venues and sell beef bowl lunch boxes.
Miso Soup
Although most gyūdon chains charge for miso soup, there are also stores that provide customers a free miso soup service only for in-store meals. Major gyūdon chains offering the free miso soup service are at all Matsuya stores (excluding take-out beef meal), all Tokyo Chikara Meshi stores (excluding take-out beef bowl), and some Sukiya stores (Akasaka 6-Chome store, etc.). For some stores, they may provide customers with pork soup or clam miso soup by raising the price with some extra fees.
Main Gyūdon Chains/Restaurants providing Gyūdon edit
Yoshinoya and Sukiya are the only gyūdon chains operating in all 47 prefectures. In the 2000s, it is considered that Yoshinoya and Sukiya were the top two as a result of the distribution of stores in each area and their great number of sales. However, at the end of the 2000s, another gyūdon chain, Matsuya suddenly participated in the price competition. Since that, Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Matsuya have been recognized as the BIG3 of gyūdon chain. In the early 2010s, Sanko Marketing Foods, which developed and expanded the "Izakaya 270" series(low-priced Japanese bar chains), entered the market. In June 2011, Tokyo Chikara Meshi ( a family restaurant chain) showed up with fried gyūdon and became a new force. However, since it was just a temporary boom, they parted the 80% of their directly managed chain stores. As the demand for gyūdon is stable for a daily meal, it is predicted that the gyūdon market expansion starts in the early to mid-2010s.
Beef ban edit
As a consequence of the fear of mad cow disease and a ban on imports of beef from the United States, Yoshinoya and most competitors were forced to terminate gyūdon sales in Japan on February 11, 2004. Yoshinoya moved its business to a similar dish made with pork instead of beef, which it named butadon (豚丼). Sukiya continued to serve gyūdon (using Australian beef) and also added a dish, tondon, equivalent to Yoshinoya's butadon, to its menu. (Buta and ton are both Japanese words for pig or pork, written with the same Han character, 豚. See tonkatsu, tonjiru.)
The Japanese Diet voted to resume beef imports from the United States in early May 2005, but the ban was reinstated in January 2006 after detectable quantities of prohibited spine tissue were found in the first post-ban shipments arriving in Japan. As the issue was discussed between the United States and Japanese governments, gyūdon vendors and customers waited for a resolution. As of September 2006, the ban has been lifted.[6]
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Danger to public health edit
On December 9, 2015, Yoshinoya Holdings asked 24 men and women between the ages of 20 and 64 to continue eating "frozen gyūdon" once a day for 3 months. As a result, there is no health risk with continually eating gyūdon.
Similar food edit
Tanindon - dishes called Taningon, Kaikadon, and Gyūtojidon are made by lightly mixing chicken eggs, sprinkling on beef, boiling to make an egg, and serving it on rice.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Watanabe, Zenjiro (2004). "Removal of the Ban on Meat. The Meat-Eating Culture of Japan at the Beginning of Westernization" (PDF). Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ Allen, Kristi (2019). "Why Eating Meat Was Banned in Japan for Centuries". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ a b "牛肉の普及 牛鍋から牛丼まで". Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
- ^ Iino, Ryōichi (2019). 天丼 かつ丼 牛丼 うな丼 親子丼 (Tendon, katsudon, gyūdon, unadon, oyakodon). Chikuma Shobō. ISBN 978-4480099518.
- ^ "吉野家が牛丼・豚丼よりもリーズナブルな新製品「牛鍋丼」を発表". GIGAZINE (in Japanese). 2010-09-02. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
- ^ As reported by MediaCorp. (Fans celebrate return of Yoshinoya beef bowl after lifting of US beef ban[permanent dead link])
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