Donburi

Donburi (丼) refers both to a large Japanese bowl and to the complete dish served in it: a portion of hot rice topped with a garnish and its sauce.

It is a very common type of meal in Japan, appreciated for its simplicity and its many variations. Gyūdon combines rice with thin slices of beef and onions, oyakodon with chicken and egg, katsudon with breaded pork, while tendon is topped with tempura.

Other donburi are prepared with fish, mushrooms or vegetables. The sauce and cooking juices run slightly into the rice, which absorbs their flavours while remaining firm enough.

The seasonings in this selection quickly give the rice a more distinctive character, for example with an intense soy sauce flavour or the aromatic notes of matsutake mushrooms. Donburi is therefore quite different from stir-fried chahan, chirashizushi made with vinegared rice and zosui simmered in broth.