Gyudon For The Sake Of Sake

You did it again.

Last night was a blur.

Awake, but were you ever really asleep? The television hanging above your head is as bright and obnoxious as the day is.

As you come to, your memories unravel and the shame of it all creeps around the back of your neck and drops into your stomach. The flash of a blade sticky with garlic and ginger, a polite Japanese woman whispering into your ear....

NO. You turn the television off and clasp your ears, but you can still hear the sounds. The noisy blur of sizzling cast irons, the slick cracks and plops of falling eggs, simmering broths, slivering onions, the CHOP CHOP CHOP of a cleaver…

Check your phone. What did you do last night? Oh fuck, of course, there it is. Fourteen texts to your sleeping partner, all grocery lists. Each one with the same ingredients but in different orders. You’ve made ten different edits based on the location of your ingredients and the most strategic way to gather them and four different edits removing alcohol then adding it back on again. Don’t put this work to waste.

Get up. Get your things. We’re going to H-mart.

It’s the same thing every time.

You make your way through the vegetable aisle first, stopping between the baby bok choy and rows of mapo tofu to feel warmth for arranging your grocery list in truly the most efficient way possible before making your way to the rice noodles, then the cold noodles, then the packaged noodles, then the oils and condiments, to the meats section and so on and so forth. You pick out a bottle of sake, “just in case.”

On the way out you notice the counter with the warm, just made musubis and quickly grab eleven of them before the workers notice you. You don’t let the elderly cashier see you panic as she rings you up for $242, but you can see her eyes flutter, for just a moment, over the pile of musubi.

Eat three of the them on the way home and wash them down with some Mr. Brown’s iced coffee, your fingers sticky and coated in tiny beads of rice and eel, but you don’t give a shit.

It’s the same thing every time.

Promise yourself you won’t do it again. That’s it! No more Youtube, no more obsessively planning over every recipe, every green onion, every dash of chili pepper, NO MORE ASMR.

But as you unload your groceries and throw out three bags of rotten vegetables that were buried in your fridge drawers, you notice that you already have two bottles of sake from the last two times. Pleased, you feel that same sense of self warmth again. And you deserve it, for you have all of the ingredients you need.

Gyudon

Ingredients:

• 1 white onion

• 1/2 pound frozen thinly sliced beef brisket

• 1/2 cup of dashi

• 1/4 cup sake

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp white sugar

• Knob of fresh ginger

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 2 cups cooked white rice

• Sliced green onion

• 2 eggs

• 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil

• Togarashi (or cayenne)

• Benishoga

Rice Prepation:

Cook the rice however it most pleases you and your family. (I used short-grain rice in a rice cooker.)

Beef Preparation:

1. Sliver the onions

2. Stir together the dashi, sake, soy sauce and sugar, then add to a saucepan with the onion

3. Bring to a simmer and stir frequently. Let sake cook off for about five minutes, or until the onion has softened.

4. Add the beef and mix well. (directly from the freezer or thawed are both fine).

5. Keep cooking until the broth mixture reduces into a thin sauce and your beef is cooked through. (five minutes or so.) in the last minute of cooking, grate fresh ginger into the pan. season with salt and pepper to taste.

Egg Preparation:

1. Put 1-2tbsp of veg oil into a well seasoned cast iron pan or wok on moderate to high heat until it is fairly hot.

2. Crack an egg into the pan/wok. it should sizzle immediately and the whites will get fluffy and crispy.

3. Tilt your pan/wok. Spoon over the hot oil directly onto the yolk, until its thoroughly cooked and crispy on the bottom, but the yolk should still be runny. (about 1 minute)

To Serve:

1. Spoon 1 cup of rice into each bowl.

2. Top the rice bowls with the beef and onion mixture.

3. When eggs are finished, slide them yolk side up on top of the beef bowl, optionally add a bit of salt to the yolk.

4. Garnish with sliced green onion, a dash or two of togarashi (or cayenne), and a small teaspoon of benishoga.

5. Serve alongside two bottles of sake.