Finishing Touches: Exploring The Different Gyudon Toppings

Gyudon, or the Japanese beef bowl, is a timeless representation of a simple and hearty meal. Although originally catered towards busy Japanese salarymen, this dish has spread worldwide due to its tastiness and affordability. A simple deep bowl of rice with beef slices layered on top, gyudon manages to satisfy both the criterion of convenience and comfort food, a versatile niche that few foods can claim.

Gyudon is often topped with garnishing or additional small food items to enhance both the taste and presentation. As a result, newcomers looking to try their first bowl of gyudon can be unsure of how toppings affect the dish. To better understand and discover what toppings suit which tastes, we’ve compiled a short list of the commonly used gyudon toppings, and how they affect the base dish.

Eggs

Often added as a way to increase the heartiness of the beef bowl, eggs are a popular topping commonly seen and ordered in restaurants.

Soft-boiled eggs are the most popular, serving as a great complement to the sauces served with gyudon. Aside from the obvious benefit of adding nutritional value to the beef bowl, soft-boiled eggs also provide an appealing contrast to the rest of the beef bowl, serving an aesthetic purpose that makes the dish all the more appealing.

Raw eggs are sometimes ordered, with the intention of being stirred into the rest of the gyudon. The heat of the freshly prepared beef bowl cooks the egg, giving the entire dish a delectable, umami flavour and texture.

Spring onions

Traditionally a garnish, chopped spring onions are added to gyudon in order to provide a fragrant, crunchy quality to the dish. With gyudon no longer limited to its traditional niche of being a hearty convenience food for busy salarymen, consumers who can afford the time to give attention to detail have added chopped spring onions to both spice up the dish and add some colour to this previously utilitarian dish.

Red pickled ginger slices

Often offered for free in many gyudon restaurants, red pickled ginger slices have a tangy kick to them. A beautiful finishing touch to a flavourful beef bowl, red pickled ginger slices are a cost-effective way to drastically improve the taste of a beef bowl.

Those finding hearty beef bowls a little too overwhelming may also add red pickled ginger slices to “lighten up” the overall taste of the dish, allowing them to finish a beef bowl with less of the guilt that comes with consuming a hearty comfort dish.

Conclusion

Amidst more unorthodox choices sometimes offered in gyudon restaurants such as cheese and kimchi, beef bowl toppings have come about as a way to improve the dining experience, and distance the dish from its utilitarian past for increased marketability and customisation.

However, toppings may not do very much if the beef bowl itself proves to be unsatisfactory! Over at OMI Wagyu, quality is as good as guaranteed with high-grade ingredients and expert preparation in dishes such as our signature Wagyu beef don. Explore modern and authentic Japanese taste over at this award-winning Canberra City Japanese restaurant.

Aside from the various Donburis, Omi Wagyu also offers many other oriental favourites, such as Singapore chilli crab dishes and Tonkotsu ramen. As a restaurant that prides itself on satisfying the multicultural taste buds found in and around Canberra City, a visit to OMI Wagyu will surely impress.