Gyudon

Namiko Hirasawa Chen’s gyudon places thin slices of beef and tender onion over Japanese short-grain rice. Her classic Japanese beef bowl uses a savoury-sweet simmering liquid made with dashi, sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar.

The sauce ingredients go into a cold pan before the sliced onion and separated beef slices are layered above them. The covered pan then heats to a simmer, with foam and fat skimmed from the broth.

Sliced green onion enters near the end for a further brief covered cook. Chen favours well-marbled ribeye and thin onion slices, which soften and bring sweetness to the bowl.

Cooked rice fills the serving bowls, with some pan sauce drizzled over it before the beef and onions are added. Pickled red ginger finishes the bowl; extra sauce can be spooned over according to preference.

Chen describes gyudon as an everyday, hearty one-bowl meal. She also recalls a different Kansai family version cooked like sukiyaki, with sugar added directly to the meat; that variation offers another way to understand the dish’s savoury-sweet character.