Rice dishes ── Donburi (rice bowls)
Aburafu Don
Aburafu don — deep-fried wheat gluten rice bowl
Deep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Origin: Miyagi Tome
- About 350 km north of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A rice bowl from Tome City: wheat gluten shaped into a stick and deep-fried into "aburafu," then simmered in broth, set with egg, and served over rice. Using aburafu in place of the pork cutlet in a katsudon is its defining trait—fried, it carries a toasty aroma and a chewy bite. The aburafu, having soaked up the broth, releases savor with each bite, and the egg wraps the whole dish in a mellow richness.
How it's made
Broth and soy sauce and other seasonings are simmered together, aburafu is added, and egg is poured in to set it. This is served over a bowl of rice, sometimes finished with mitsuba for color. Made the same way as a pork cutlet bowl, it is favored as a meat-free rice bowl, appealing to those who avoid meat or eat vegetarian, it is said.
Why it took this shape
In the late Meiji era, when refrigeration was scarce, a tofu shop is said to have devised aburafu as a more keepable alternative to fried tofu and tofu itself, which spoiled easily. Aburafu, once made only in the Tome area, is said to have been shaped into a rice bowl by a local inn's proprietress in the image of a pork cutlet bowl, a background thought to be why the dish spread as a local specialty.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Roadside stations, direct-sale stands, and marketsHow to enjoy buying food near where it's produced, visiting and shopping at morning markets and fish markets, what to expect at farm stands, and finding local food at roadside stations (michi-no-eki).
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu Sōsu KatsudonAizu's sauce katsudon, doused in a thick sweet-savory sauce. Its origin has several competing accounts, none settled, but all point to it being refined through everyday improvisation on Taisho-era Western food.
- Chuka-donStir-fried pork and vegetables in a thickened sauce, poured over rice — a Japanese take on Chinese cooking. Documented in a 1928 home-cooking book, with one account crediting a Chinese restaurant in Asakusa.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- Nasu IriSendai's long eggplant is sliced and stir-fried with aburafu or fried tofu in soy sauce, finished with a light potato-starch gloss — said to trace to an eggplant a Date-clan retainer brought home, which took its distinct shape in the Tohoku climate.
- Hokki MeshiRaw surf clams are simmered in a soy-based sauce, and that broth cooks the rice they're served over — a home dish from clam-rich Yamamoto that's said to have grown into the town's signature food.
Also from Miyagi
- AzaraNapa cabbage pickled long enough to turn sour is simmered slowly with rockfish trimmings and sake lees — a Kesennuma dish said to taste even better cold, or reheated the next day, long loved as everyday food.
- Bakke MisoButterbur sprouts picked in early spring — called 'bakke' locally — are boiled, chopped, and worked into a paste with walnuts and miso, said to be prized for helping clear the body of winter's buildup, spooned over rice or grilled fish.
- Donko JiruDonko, a brown hakeling landed at Ishinomaki and Kesennuma ports, is simmered in miso with daikon and tofu — a fish said to be considered lucky for money, given its wide mouth and narrow tail, and offered at the autumn ebisu-ko festival.
- Ebi MochiPaddy shrimp caught in irrigation channels and ponds are seasoned with soy sauce and sake, then folded whole into freshly pounded mochi — a Kurihara dish said to be served, red against white, to guests over New Year's.
- Fusube MochiLoach, grilled plain then smoked over an irori hearth, is ground to powder and simmered with grated daikon and burdock in a soy-chili sauce, then folded into freshly pounded mochi — said to be a mochi dish born of inland Kurihara's distance from the sea.
- GanzukiWheat flour is worked with dark brown sugar, baking soda, and vinegar, then steamed into a plain sweet bread — light yet filling, said to be named for a resemblance to wild goose meat, an everyday snack in Miyagi.