Gyudon (Beef & Rice bowl), Fully Cooked, Ready to Eat

Do you have the motivation to cook dinner using healthy vegetables from scratch after a long day? I don't. I don't even feel like doing anything on a weekend, but we have to feed your little ones. There are easy, simple, fast, healthy and delicious dishes with good value for the price. Today, let me introduce a cooked-chilled food, Gyudon(Beef & Rice bowl) in Japanese which is hugely loved by Japanese men as soul food. Gyudon is a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of cooked beef with onion and steamed rice underneath, with a flavor of soy sauce and sweetness similar to SUKIYAKI sauce. Yoshinoya Co., Ltd., a Japanese multinational major Gyudon restaurant founded in 1899, offers a cooked-chilled one. There are so many enthusiastic fans of the shop, who wish to eat almost everyday.

Just Microwave and Serve on Rice

What you need to do is very simple and easy. Following the instruction, Microwave the package for a few minutes directly and serve on rice. That's it! It may be nice to have it with buns as well unless you truly love the steamed rice and able to cook beforehand.

The package can be found at Amazon store.

Who like it? From children to the elderly　　

Onions in the Gyudon soaked up the beef flavor fully, so children who dislike vegetables can enjoy it. I haven’t met children who don’t like the beef bowl in Japan.

In my personal story, my parents who are in their 70's today were losing appetite due to age. Japanese seniors tend to be a light eater, especially for meats, which makes them lack of protein. I looked for any solutions and found a highly nutritive food containing high enough protein especially made for elderly people, but it wasn't tasty at all. So I proposed the Gyudon to them. It's soft, easy to digest and has rich nutrition. It didn't take a long time for them to become a big fan of the Gyudon!

I also introduced the Gyudon to my parents in law because I heard that they have some difficulties to cook everyday. Many senior people I know are a very good cook and hesitates to use pre-cook one. Perhaps it's not really my scope to change something that they used to do for a long time, but I introduced them anyway. I understand that eating delicious food overwhelms the hesitation. Nowadays, they even ask me how to buy them. There is even better news with Gyudon, they can keep precooked-one in a freezer for a long time so that they don't have care for the expiration date. If you buy them in bulk, you can eat them at your own pace, whenever you like!

Unique Topping on the bowl

Traditionally, raw eggs are known as a topping of Gyudon. Eggs are often eaten fresh in Japan because they are washed and sterilized Salmonella Enteritidis during the production process. Furthermore, several measures are taken to reduce the contamination risk of the Salmonella Enteritidis. The expiration date for raw eggs is very short, two weeks, not one or two months.

Japanese enjoy the rich and creamy taste with the Gyudon, which changes the seasoning milder. If you have a chance to visit Japan, trying something unusual and experiencing new might be interesting.

How to make it by yourself

There are several good recipes you can find on internet. You may like some of them.

Where you can try GYUDON in Japan

There are several budget-friendly-fast-food restaurants, such as YOSHINOYA, SUKIYA, MATSUYA Foods, and NAKAU, all specialized in Gyudon. You should find them near the station easily. Each restaurant has its own feature and original taste, you may want to try each quality.

Other Japanese rice bowl kinds!

For the rice bowl beginner, Gyudon is the first choice to eat out. To be intermediate and to enjoy the deep world of bowl food, why don't you try the following when you visit Japan.

Katsu-don (deep-fried pork cutlet on rice): a crispy, deep-fried pork cutlet topped with egg and condiments, seasoned with special sweet and salty sauce of soy sauce and tasty fish flavor. The sound of Katsu has a different meaning, "Winning", so Katsu-don is one of fortune food. I used to eat it before important matches of sports or tests.

Oyako-don (cooked chicken breast fillet and egg over rice): chicken topped with egg and condiments, seasoned with special sweet and salty sauce of soy sauce and tasty fish flavor. The name 'oyako' means 'parent and child'. Sounds like bit creepy, ironic or funny name? I heard that Oyako-don is not really loved in oversea by its name. I guess some ancient people named it as his joke, maybe. What do you think?