Donburi

Tendon and Unadon

Donburi (kanji: 丼; hiragana: どんぶり, literally "bowl", also frequently abbreviated as "don", thus less commonly spelled "domburi") is a Japanese "rice bowl dish" consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice. Donburi meals are served in oversized rice bowls also called donburi. Donburi are sometimes called sweetened or savory stews on rice.

The simmering sauce varies according to season, ingredient, region, and taste. A typical sauce might consist of dashi flavored with shoyu and mirin. Proportions vary, but there is normally three to four times as much dashi as shoyu and mirin. For oyakodon, Tsuji (1980) recommends dashi flavored with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar. For gyudon, Tsuji recommends water flavored with dark soy sauce and mirin.

In many restaurants, the term "donburi" applies to almost any food, especially sliced raw fish, served on top of the rice, as the following list shows.

Varieties of donburi

Gyūdon, or "beef bowl".

Katsudon

Traditional Japanese donburi include the following:

• Gyūdon (牛丼): beef and onion on rice.
• Tendon (天丼): tempura shrimp and vegetables on rice.
• Unadon (鰻丼): unagi kabayaki (grilled eel) on rice.
• Tamagodon (玉子丼): a scrambled egg mixed with sweet donburi sauce on rice.
• Oyakodon (親子丼): simmered chicken, egg and onion on rice.
• Katsudon (カツ丼): breaded deep-fried pork cutlets (tonkatsu), onion, and egg on rice.
• Tekkadon (鉄火丼): thin-sliced raw tuna over rice. Spicy tekkadon is made with what can be a mix of spicy ingredients, a spicy orange sauce, or both (usually incorporates spring onions).
• Hokkadon: thin-sliced raw salmon over rice.
• Negitorodon (ネギトロ丼): diced toro (fatty tuna) and negi (spring onions) on rice.
• Tenshindon or Tenshin-han (天津丼 / 天津飯): a Chinese-Japanese specialty, consisting of a crabmeat omelet on rice; this dish is named for Tianjin, China.

Donburi can be made from almost any ingredients, including left-overs. Inexpensive Chinese restaurants in Japan often serve chūkadon (中華丼) or gomoku-chukadon (五目中華丼)—stir-fried assorted vegetables with some meat over rice in a big bowl. Not traditionally Japanese or Chinese, the hybrid dish indicates the popularity of donburi in Japan.

See also

• Japanese cuisine

References

• Tsuji, Shizuo (1980). Japanese cooking: A simple art. New York: Kodansha International/USA. ISBN 0870113992.

External links

• Images of donburi at Japanese Wikipedia