Bringing Japan To The World and the World to Japan

Japanese Food Part 1 - "Donburi"

What do you think about Japan and Japanese food? I noticed recently that when I have casual conversations about Japan and Japanese food with non-Japanese in England, I often get the response, "I can't eat sushi" or the "idea of raw fish doesn't appeal to me." I don't know why I get that kind of answer most of the time but I do know that Japan and Japanese are still a mystical existence to many.

I sort of understand why non-Japanese/foreigners get the idea that Japan and Japanese food are all about sushi because sushi has become ever so popular around the world with celebrities and media promoting it as a healthier choice than western dishes. However, although Japanese really do enjoy eating sushi, it is not a cuisine we eat daily in Japan. In fact, long time ago it used to be a gourmet type of cuisine and it wasn't eaten unless for a special occasion like school graduations, weddings, birthdays, etc. It's only after convenience food stores and the "conveyer-belt sushi" ("kaiten-sushi") became popular in Japan to make sushi a "normal" type of dish rather than one for special occasions. It also made sushi more cost effective and accessible at places other than sushi restaurants so it became a more common dish for us to have. But there is more to eat than sushi in Japan. And just because you don't like or can't eat sushi doesn't mean you don't like Japanese food so please don't give up!

There are a lot of delicious dishes that would delight the pallet of many foreigners. I'd love to take the next few weeks to introduce more aspects of the wonderful world of Japanese food so this is just first of those series. I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you have any questions or comments to help me provide you with answers to what you seek about Japan and Japanese food through these blogs. So comments and questions are welcome! This blog is to introduce you to a dish called "Donburi." I'll introduce you to 5 types today. So let's get started.

"Donburi" (meaning "bowl" in English) are great dishes for those veterans who enjoy eating Japanese food and for those who are trying out Japanese food for the first time.

(1) TENDON - A bowl of deep fried prawns and vegetables with a soy sauce based sauce covered on top of white rice. This is one of my favourite dishes and it is really delicious. In fact, I just had it for lunch yesterday. In this dish, you will normally get 2 deep fried prawns and one each of 3-4 types of deep fried vegetables (the contents will depend on the restaurant). It may sound like it's greasy and it is - well, it's equivalent of a yummy dish of chips so you get what I mean. With the sauce that covers over on top, you will be delighted with this experience. It's one of my favourite dishes.

(2) OYAKODON - A bowl of marinated cooked chicken with egg and some vegetable all on top of rice with a soy sauce based sauce. "Oyako" means "parent and child" hence the chicken and egg combination. Just because oyako means parent and child, it is not used for any other dish other than this chicken and egg dish (for instance, we have a dish which includes raw salmon and salmon roe but it's not called "oyako"). So I still wonder, which was it that came first - the chicken or the egg?

(3) KATSUDON - A bowl of port cutlet with egg with vegetables on top of rice with a soy sauce based sauce. The word "Katsu" comes from the cutlet. In Japanese, the pronunciation of cutlet is "Katsuretsu" only because we're Japanese. Japanese love to shorten words and a cutlet turned out to be Katsu. Japanese shortening their words is another interesting thing to elaborate on someday so next time I will write a blog that will give you examples of what I'm talking about - it will make you chuckle.

(4) SUKIYAKIDON - A bowl of sukiyaki on top of rice. Sukiyaki includes a combination of thinly sliced tender beef, vegetables and tofu on top of rice with a soy sauce based sauce. Sukiyaki is one of the most favourite dishes in Japan and although it's available all year long, it's most popular in the winter season as it's normally cooked in a large cooking pan that is put in the middle of a table and eaten by 2 or more people.

(5) YAKINIKUDON - A bowl of yakiniku on top of rice. Yakiniku is a combined word of "yaki" which means cooked and "niku" which means "meat". Japanese do not eat as much red meat as our western counterparts but when we do, yakiniku is one of our most favourite dishes. The meat is cooked in a soy sauce based sauce and is cooked until tender. For this dish, the meat which we call yakiniku includes vegetables as well. It's a really delicious dish for those who enjoy meat.

So those are all 5 examples of Japanese dishes that are in the "Donburi" (bowl) category. All the food is cooked so you shouldn't have a problem eating Japanese food. For those vegetarians, you can get the Tendon without the shrimp so you can get just the deep fried vegetables with the soy based sauce on top over the rice. However in this case, the "Ten" in Tendon implies "shrimp" in Japan so technically you won't be calling the dish tendon. You will call the dish "Yasai Tempura" which means Yasai = vegetables and Tempura = deep fried. Wow, you even got some Japanese language lessons here! What a bargain. You can mail me your cheque after reading this blog (laugh). Hope you enjoyed reading and learned a bit of Japan.