Gyūdon

Gyūdon is a popular Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onions. The meat and onions are simmered in a mildly sweet sauce. This sauce is flavored with dashi, which is a stock made from fish and seaweed. It also contains soy sauce and mirin, a type of sweet rice wine.

Because it is served in a deep bowl, it is considered a type of donburi. People often enjoy this meal with various toppings or side dishes. Common additions include raw or soft poached eggs, negi onions, grated cheese, or kimchi. Many people also eat it with beni shōga, which is pickled ginger, and shichimi, a ground chili pepper. A side of miso soup is a very common accompaniment.

To prepare the dish, the beef and onions are cooked in a specific liquid. Historically, this involved using miso to tenderize the meat and neutralize its smell. However, a newer version uses a special stock called warishita. Warishita is a combination of a sweetener, such as sugar or mirin, and soy sauce. Some versions of this simmered beef include additional ingredients like tofu or shirataki. Shirataki are noodle-like strips made from konjac. Once the ingredients are simmered, they are placed directly over a bowl of rice.

Customers can even customize their order by requesting extra sauce. This is called tsuyudaku, or they can request no sauce, known as tsuyunuki.

There are different ways to serve this beef dish. While most modern fast food chains serve a simple version with just rice, beef, and onions, some establishments still offer a sukiyaki-style topping. Sukiyaki is a dish that includes ingredients like tofu and shirataki. In some restaurants, the dish might be called by different names. For example, the Matsuya chain sells it as gyūmeshi. Another chain, Hanamaru Udon, lists it on their menu as gyūniku gohan, which literally means beef rice.

The history of eating beef in Japan changed significantly over many centuries. After Buddhism arrived in the 6th century, eating meat became rare. People often avoided eating four-footed animals like cattle or pigs for religious and practical reasons. This changed after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. During this time, Japan underwent westernization, and meat consumption began to increase. Gyūdon is believed to have evolved from gyūnabe, a beef hot pot from the Kantō region. Originally, gyūnabe used miso, but by the late 1800s, the warishita sauce version became more common.

By the 1890s, gyūmeshi was a popular food in Tokyo. In 1899, Eikichi Matsuda opened the first Yoshinoya restaurant at a fish market in the Nihonbashi district. At that time, gyūdon was also sold at street food stands, known as yatai, in areas like Ueno and Asakusa. Although it was once seen as food for the working class, its popularity grew across all social classes. This surge happened after the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. During that period of devastation in Tokyo, gyūdon was one of the food items that was easily available to citizens.

Today, gyūdon is a staple of Japanese fast food culture. There are three major restaurant chains that specialize in the dish. Sukiya is currently the largest chain and was established in Yokohama in 1981. Yoshinoya is the oldest of the three and is the second largest, founded in 1899. Matsuya was established in Nerima, Tokyo, in 1968. Many of these shops operate 24 hours a day to serve customers.

In some locations, customers use a shokken, or food ticket machine, to order their meals.

The availability of beef has faced challenges due to international trade issues. In February 2004, a ban on beef imports from the United States forced many vendors to stop selling gyūdon. Yoshinoya responded by offering a similar dish made with pork called butadon. Sukiya continued to serve gyūdon using beef from Australia. The Japanese Diet voted to resume US beef imports in May 2005. However, the ban was briefly reinstated in January 2006 due to issues with spine tissue in shipments. The ban was eventually lifted in September 2006, allowing the beef dish to return to menus across the country.