Gyūdon

Gyūdon (牛丼), literally beef bowl, 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 also often includes shirataki noodles, and is sometimes topped with a raw egg or a soft poached egg (onsen tamago). A very popular food in Japan, it is commonly served with beni shōga (pickled ginger), shichimi (ground chili pepper), and a side dish of miso soup. Gyū is the prefix for anything cow-related, and don is short for donburi, the Japanese word for "bowl".

History

Due to the Movement Towards Westernization (文明開化 - Meiji Restoration in Japan) that Japan experienced in the Meiji Era, western customs like eating beef were adopted and spread throughout Japan.

The prototype for the modern gyūdon as a dish for the general public was invented at this time from gyūmeishi.

Gyūdon is considered to have come from Sukiyaki-don and the old dish gyūnabe, where thin slices of beef are cooked with vegetables in a pot, and at some point was put over rice and served in a bowl.