Japanese food, like so much of Japanese culture, is a fairly simple proposition made complicated by the complexities of the Japanese people. The most well known Japanese food is probably sushi which is a bit of raw fish with a little bit of white rice. This sounds pretty simple, but in order to be a sushi chef requires years of training in order to get those basics to a high enough standard. Rice is very much the staple of the nation and is consumed daily by most people and often multiple times in a day. Japanese food is actually quite varied in terms of ingredients but it is often accompanied by a bowl of white rice and soup.
One form of having that rice is to not have the rice separately but with a topping on top of a bowl of rice and these are “don”[1]. Popular dons are with eel (unadon), pork cutlets (katsudon), tempura (tendon) etc[2]. but I think the most popular is the beef bowl, or gyudon. There are three major chains Sukiya, Yoshinoya and my personal favourite Matsuya. I have a soft spot for Matsuya as there was one which was very close to where I lived in Japan and it always felt so welcoming. It is also one of the places that I have previously mentioned in a blog post from 2003[3] (link) and it links in with that particular friend of mine and how succinctly it seemed to represent some of the basic differences between the UK and Japan in a few transactions.
Gyudon is a very cheap meal, I think the basic form at Matsuya, with a serving of miso soup, was 390 yen which was about £2 at the time. In all honesty, I would have a “set”[4] which had salad and some extras too if I had gyudon but this added maybe 200 yen to the cost. Obviously, with such a cheap meal, the quality of the components was not stellar, though Japan has quite a high “low” so it was far from terrible. It is made, not with “good” chunks of meat, but a stringy, saucy meat. This is quite difficult to get outside of Japan as with a niche food, you will have to charge a bit more. And this is the challenge, an appropriate level of gyudon is really hard to find.
And this is the challenge…
We’ll see how far this goes but the “Gyudon in London” project I am starting here is very simple, it involves going to different places in London that serve gyudon and eating gyudon. From that place which is in London.
As I rather like circularity, my partner for this will be the aforementioned Paul and our reference point will be the starting point for all of it: Matsuya in Koshigaya. In many ways, this is all just about the warmth we have for Matsuya in Koshigaya.
1. Don refers to the bowl itself that the food is served in rather than the food. This is similar to the “balti” which is a curry that was first concocted in the UK and means “bucket” in Bengali.↩
2. My favourite named don is the “oyakodon” which is made up of the words “oya” and “ko” which mean parent and child respectively. What does that mean? It is a mixture of chicken and egg. This is a great name!↩
3. A number of years ago, I worked as a teacher of English in Japan. I was based in the southern Saitama region and was there for approximately three years. When I mentioned to a few people about moving to Japan, food was mentioned frequently: “how are you going to have raw fish every day?”. Of course, there are loads of types of food in Japan and sushi is not particularly commonly eaten - it is often for special occasions.↩
4. I liked Matsuya as it was simple, quick and tasty which is a pretty killer combination. I enjoyed having a raw egg with gyudon and salad. Pickled ginger came in a pot which I sprinkled liberally over the raw egg with a little barbecue sauce. These kinds of places didn't invite disapproval and felt like anything goes kinds of places. The other thing i liked there was The “Hamburg set” which was a beefburger (hamburg steak) with a sauce accompanied with rice and soup.↩
2. My favourite named don is the “oyakodon” which is made up of the words “oya” and “ko” which mean parent and child respectively. What does that mean? It is a mixture of chicken and egg. This is a great name!↩
3. A number of years ago, I worked as a teacher of English in Japan. I was based in the southern Saitama region and was there for approximately three years. When I mentioned to a few people about moving to Japan, food was mentioned frequently: “how are you going to have raw fish every day?”. Of course, there are loads of types of food in Japan and sushi is not particularly commonly eaten - it is often for special occasions.↩
4. I liked Matsuya as it was simple, quick and tasty which is a pretty killer combination. I enjoyed having a raw egg with gyudon and salad. Pickled ginger came in a pot which I sprinkled liberally over the raw egg with a little barbecue sauce. These kinds of places didn't invite disapproval and felt like anything goes kinds of places. The other thing i liked there was The “Hamburg set” which was a beefburger (hamburg steak) with a sauce accompanied with rice and soup.↩
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