Rice dishes ── Donburi (rice bowls)
Hyuga-don
Hyuga-don — raw tuna marinated in an egg-yolk soy sauce, served over rice
Lean tuna is steeped in a sweetened soy sauce dressing thick with ground sesame and egg yolk, then piled over hot rice — a fisherman's meal from Hotojima island off Tsukumi, said to have been devised for a quick bite on deck with no fire needed; in some places it goes by ryukyu-don instead.
- Origin: Oita Tsukumi
- About 780 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Hyugadon, from Hotojima island off Tsukumi, is a fisherman's dish of lean tuna marinated in a sauce of soy sauce, sugar, sake, sesame, and egg yolk, served over rice. Made with well-ground toasted sesame and a touch of sugar, the slightly sweet sauce, enriched further by the egg yolk clinging to the tuna, gives the dish real depth, while scallion and ginger sharpen the appetite.
How it's made
Toasted sesame is ground well and mixed into a slightly sweet soy-based sauce with sugar added, then egg yolk is stirred in. Scallion and ginger are mixed through to let the flavors meld, and the lean tuna is marinated in the sauce for a while; the egg yolk clinging to the fish is said to add extra richness. It's served over hot rice, and setting a little aside for ochazuke at the end lets you enjoy the dish two different ways.
Why it took this shape
Hotojima, known as a base for offshore tuna fishing, is said to have given rise to this dish as something fishermen devised to eat quickly and nutritiously between hauls. Accounts of the name vary: one holds it comes from being eaten without a fire even as strong winds howled aboard the boat, another that it became known after tuna boats put in at a port in Hyuga, Miyazaki, though the true origin isn't settled. Known in some areas as "ryukyu-don" or "atsumeshi," it is also said to have been served at celebrations such as weddings.
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
- Aburafu DonDeep-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.
- 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.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Oita
- Aji no MaruzushiA whole horse mackerel, cured in plum vinegar and opened flat, is wrapped around vinegared rice and rolled in red shiso leaf — a celebratory sushi from Saiki, painstaking to prepare, built on the rich mackerel landed from the Bungo Channel.
- AmimeshiKrill simmered sweet-savory in mirin, soy sauce, and ginger is folded into freshly steamed rice — a dish from the Usa, Nakatsu, and Bungotakada coast, where krill are hauled from the Buzen Sea tideflats each autumn and winter; a favorite of the northern Oita coast.
- Atama RyoriGills, jaw, and innards of a large fish like grouper are quickly parboiled along with the flesh and piled onto a single platter — a dish from inland Taketa, far from the sea, said to have grown from a wish to waste nothing of a rare catch, served with a citrus dipping sauce.
- Ayu UrukaAyu (sweetfish) flesh or innards are minced with salt and left to ferment for about a week — an Oita salted delicacy said to have begun as a way to keep the clean river's seasonal catch; the innards-only version, nigauruka, carries a distinctive bitterness.
- Beppu ReimenThe dish's spread is traced to around 1950, when a cook repatriated from what had been Manchuria began making cold noodles in Beppu. Genso Arirang, founded that same year, is often named as the pioneering shop; the local style pairs a Japanese-style seafood stock with noodles made from buckwheat, wheat, and starch.
- Dango-jiruWheat dough kneaded and stretched into flat ribbons is simmered with root vegetables and shiitake in a barley-miso broth — an everyday Oita dish born of the prefecture's flour-based food culture, where poor rice land pushed wheat to the fore; the ribbons keep a firmer bite than udon.