For those of you that are familiar with Japanese fast food, you’ve probably heard of Yoshinoya. It’s a fast food chain that specializes in rice bowls and they’re particularly well known for their gyudon (beef donburi).
This popularity was elevated to cult status when the Japanese government banned American beef imports due to the mad-cow scare. Being a fast food chain, they couldn’t afford to buy Japanese beef and continue selling the bowls for $3, so they halted the sale of their signature dish and replaced it with butadon (pork donburi). Their loyal fans where crushed and there was much hullabaloo over the whole episode until the menu item was restored a few years ago.
Honestly, I don’t get the appeal. True, it’s cheap, but there were people flying from Tokyo to LA to have a bowl during the beef-outtage, so that argument doesn’t really hold. Here’s my rendition of the popular dish. It’s truly as simple to make as it looks and yet it makes for a satisfying meal.
It’s important that you use a tender cut of beef with a lot of marbling. Since this is supposed to be a cheap dish, I pick up packs of “kiriotoshi” which are the odds and ends of high quality beef that’s left after they slice the beef for sukiyaki and shabu shabu. If you don’t happen to live near a Japanese grocery, you can semi-freeze a piece of beef and use a sharp knife to cut it across the grain into thin slices.
In other news, Kang over at London Eater has tagged me for a meme. I don’t participate in memes, but since he was nice enough to tag me and because he has a great collection of London restaurant reviews (which I’m sure to use the next time I’m over there) y’all should check out London Eater.
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Japanese people have a thing for naming things for the vessel they come in (see nabe), and this is no exception. Donburi literally means “bowl”, but is typically refers to a bowl of rice topped with something. Japanese people also like abbreviating things, so donburi becomes “don” in common parlance.
This is the ultimate weeknight meal as it takes almost no time to make. It’s also fantastic in bento boxes for lunch. I usually make a batch of onsen tamago (slow cooked egg) over a weekend as it takes a bit of time to make, if you haven’t make any ahead of time, this also great topped with a sunny side up egg, or scrambled egg, or even no egg at all.
The chicken is quickly cooked in a sweet soy sauce (think teriyaki sauce), and sandwiches a thin layer of green onions over rice. The onsen tamago, permeates the entire dish with a custardy creaminess that you just can’t beaten.
You could do a lot with this basic recipe too. Try using beef or pork, or even crumbled firm tofu. You could also add veggies. For seasoning, it’s great with a little sesame oil, garlic, or if you want to give it a little kick, add some gochujang (Korean hot sauce).
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For those of you that have never had it, chirashi sushi i a bowl of vinegared sushi rice topped with a bunch of colorful stuff. At most sushi restaurants this means covering the rice with slices of various raw fish, but that’s not always how it’s made.
Growing up my mom used to make a vegetarian version with simmered shitake mushrooms, carrots, egg, sugar peas and benishoga (red ginger) for any potluck or party we’d go to. It makes for a great party dish because it’s something you eat at room temperature and the ticker-tape-confetti of toppings makes it look very festive.
My rendition is a bit more decadent, capturing the essence of the sea. The ingredients aren’t cheap, but it’s still cheaper than going to a local sushi restaurant and it isn’t nearly as hard to prepare as it looks. I made this in about an hour, but if you make some of the stuff ahead of time it can be assembled in even less time.
If you’re squeamish about uni (or any of the other ingredients) you could obviously sub them out, but steamed uni is not nearly as off-putting as the raw kind they have at sushi restaurants. Cooking it gives it more structure making it more cheese like in texture (though not flavour) while retaining its sweet creaminess.
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I had some bass left over from another dish I made, so I dropped it in some all-purpose Japanese marinade and turned it into this donburi.
There’s a layer of dashi tamago (japanese style scrambled eggs) between the rice and the bass that adds some sweet richness to the dish and the sansho (a.k.a. sichuan pepper) powder on top adds an herbal kick. This works best with an oily fish like sea bass or salmon, but you could use other fish as well if you’re looking for something lighter.
cooked rice
for grilled bass
1 batch of Japanese marinade
2 pieces of fish with high oil content (sea bass, yellow tail, salmon)
for dashi tamago
2 eggs
3 tsp concentrated dashi
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Mirin
1 heaping tsp sugar
Marinate the fish in the Japanese marinade overnight.
Prepare some rice.
Grill the fish either over a barbeque or in a broiler until cooked and the marinade has caramelized to form a deep mahogany finish on the surface of the fish.
For the dashi tamago, whisk the ingredients together, heat a non-stick pan over medium heat until hot. Swirl a bit of oil around then add the egg. Turn down the heat to medium low and use a heat-proof silicon spatula to scrape up the cooked egg from the bottom. Let another layer cook then scrape it up too. Repeat until you have big fluffy curds of egg that are still a little wet (it will be fully cooked by the time you plate it).
Put some cooked rice down in a bowl, layer some egg on top and set the fish on top of the egg. Garnish with a sprinkle of powdered sansho and some green shiso.
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