Gyudon

Damn right, you got it Yoshinoya. Watch your back because (victory dance!) I've just made gyudon and I think you're in serious trouble. No, I have not gone completely bonkers. I'm just over the top happy that after 3 years and I don't know exactly how many failed experiments, I have finally successfully managed to make a pretty darn good bowl of gyudon that is super close to Yoshinoya's gyudon bowl. Thanks to Francis, the adorable miniature poodle host of Youtube's Cooking with the Dog.



Back in Manila, Yoshinoya's gyudon bowl was our definition of soul satisfying food. My hubby and I frequently ate at Yoshinoya SM North that the crew have eventually gotten to know us. I don't know what was going on in their minds at that time. They probably thought that we were slightly nuts because we always ordered the same thing, the large gyudon bowl with a bowl of miso soup and sweet green tea. Sweet green tea, yuck! Yeah I know, it's not even tea, it's just sugared water with sliced limes and green, as in neon green food colouring, so yeah, yuck!. I haven't touched that stuff for 3 years now, so now I know better. But the gyudon bowl, oh!!! Sadly there is no Yoshinoya in Canada (not that I know of anyway).

Gyudon is a simple Japanese beef stew made from very thinly sliced beef perfectly cooked in a dashi based broth and seasoned with ginger, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. It does not have any vegetable other than onion. These are real simple ingredients that are very easy to find but the trickiest and perhaps the most frustrating thing about it is getting all of these simple elements to marry and create a perfectly balanced harmony of flavours. These perfect balance is what I could never ever seem to closely achieve...until now. Again thanks to Francis.



I followed most of Francis' recipe and cooking instruction except that I made my own dashi stock which is essentially the dried kelp (kombu) and bonito flakes boiled in water. I didn't serve my gyudon bowl with a soft boiled egg or the green onions though. Yoshinoya does not serve its gyudon with green onion and soft boiled egg. I wanted mine to be as close to Yoshinoya's as much as possible. Like I said, achieving that perfect balance was critical. It was kind of scary, in a way it was like I was doing a chemistry experiment. I didn't measure anything but I added my seasoning in small increments, bit by bit, tasting as I go along to make sure I couldn't mess it up at the same time making sure that if I did mess it up, it would be fixable.



Thank goodness I didn't mess it up. Well, not completely anyway. The beef was a little too lean, there's something to be said about a having a little fat. But it was really close as in really close to Yoshinoya's very own gyudon.