If you’re normal (which I assume most of you are), a nice person that respects the restaurants’ service and take whatever they serve, you’ve probably only eaten a “normal” gyudon (beef bowl).
If you’ve lived in Japan or love gyudon, you probably know how to arrange your bowl by adding toppings such as egg, cheese, kimchi, hot sauce, etc.
However, did you know that many gyudon restaurants offer a “secret dish” that is not on the menu?
If not, you’re about to learn the five secret menus that even some local Japanese do not know!
Even if you did not like gyudon at your first try, maybe you’ll find a dish that would suit your taste!
1)Tsuyu-daku (Extra Soup)
Perhaps the most famous out of the unwritten menus is “tsuyu-daku”, extra soup.
The fascination of this, is that the rice lying beneath the beef gets soaked with beef soup, hence making the texture closer to a porridge.
Plus, you would be able to enjoy the flavorful soup all the way up to the very last bit of rice.
From my personal experience, I realized that a lot of foreigners, especially westerners prefer this style over normal gyudon because they are not used to eating plain rice with no flavor.
2)Negi-daku (Extra Onions)
Many people seem to fail to realize this fact, but onion plays a huge role in the bowl, adding natural sweetness and aroma to gyudon.
Some people (including myself) love this so much, that they ask the staff to put extra onions on their bowl.
Not only does the stewed onion add extra aromatic flavor to the bowl, but it also brings more variance in texture, making it an absolute delight when chewing on it.
3)Negi-nuki (No Onions)
However, some people naturally don’t like onions, but still want to eat gyudon because...well, who doesn’t like a filling meal that is delicious and cheap?
So, they would order a “negi-nuki”, gyudon without onions.
The staff would carefully scoop the beef only, and put it on the bowl.
If you’re not a big fan of onions, and that had been keeping you away from gyudon, you should definitely try a “negi-nuki” next time.
4)Niku-shita (Rice on top of Beef)
Why, you ask? That is exactly how I reacted when my friend ordered it.
But when he made me try it, everything made sense like when Isaac saw the falling apple.
When eating a beef bowl, you take the slightly soaked rice as a given.
In fact, the soaked part is one of the highlights of the dish (hence why there are many tsuyu-daku fans).
However, have you ever wanted to eat stewed beef and onions with a crispy bowl of rice?
Don’t you have those times when you prefer a plain rice rather than flavored ones?
This is exactly that. Since all the beef and soup is stored under the rice, your rice is crispy until the very end and does not lose its texture.
This way, you can enjoy the rice as your main feature of the dish.
There is one more reason why someone would order a “niku-shita”. That is if you are taking your gyudon to go.
This way, the delicious soup would not spill but rather be soaked up by the rice on top of it. Genius.
This is another tricky one, but definitely worth a try. Enjoy your beef bowl with cold rice.
The hot stewed beef would gradually heat the rice and create a delightful contrast of temperature.
I have to mention that this is not for everyone, but some people love their gyudon this way.
So, you feeling like gyudon tonight?
Although I’m sure some of you can’t wait to try some of these secret menus for yourself, I have to leave one ending note that some gyudon restaurants would not take these orders because they’re either too busy that they can’t care to prepare each one differently, or simply out of stocks (like extra onions) that they would loose balance of the bowl for people coming after you.
Either way, it is always nice to ask them politely if they would be able to prepare these secret menus among your request.
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