Gyudon

Gyūdon (牛丼), often literally translated into English as 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 soy sauce and mirin. It also often includes shirataki. A very popular food in Japan, it is commonly served with beni shoga (pickled ginger), shichimi, and a side dish of miso soup. "Gyū" means "cow" or "beef", and "don" is short for "donburi", the Japanese word for "bowl".

Gyūdon can be found in many Japanese restaurants and some fast food chains specialize exclusively in the dish. The largest gyūdon chains in Japan are Yoshinoya and Sukiya. Another large chain, Matsuya, sells gyūdon under the name "gyūmeshi" (牛めし).

As a consequence of the fear of mad cow disease and a ban on imports of American beef, Yoshinoya and most competitors were forced to terminate gyudon 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 kanji, 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 American and Japanese governments, gyudon vendors and customers waited for a resolution. As of September 2006, the ban has been lifted. [As reported by MediaCorp. (" [http://www.todayonline.com/articles/143251.asp Fans celebrate return of Yoshinoya beef bowl after lifting of US beef ban] ")]

It was also made popular from the manga "Kinnikuman". Although the Japanese meaning of '丼' is a bowl of rice covered with a topping, the borrowed word from Chinese means a water well.

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