NIKU DAY

Day 5 - after 4 days of Sakana or seafood Sensei thought meat should be next, and so we did.  I call it the 'Nameshida Don Parade' as we prepared 2 signature rice bowls, accompanied by chickens 2-way and 2 delicious sides.

Oyako Don  is chicken & egg on rice, playing on the word Oyako meaning parent and child.  While it captures the spirit of the dish well but to a Buddhist it is hell turned over as we 'cooked them both' to please our palate. The key trick for this recipe is not to whisk the eggs too hard, and not to over-cook so the yolk and white will present themselves like a irregular landscape over the rice. The rest is easy, primarily chicken and onion cooked in Dashi soup stock, and seasoned.

Gyu Don is beef rice of the Yoshinoya variety is just as simple. Come to think of it the seasoning sauce for meats is quite standard ie Soya Sauce, Sugar, Sake & Mirin or Sweet Sake ... QED!  Grated ginger is used to cook with the meat to rid the raw meaty taste.

Next to the Dons we prepared Kara-Age aka fried chicken. The word is formed by 2 Chinese characters or Kangi which means 'Chinese' and 'raise' something like that, meaning deep fry. No mention of chicken anywhere so the verb is also a noun.  Strange? In a generic sense 'Age-mono' means deep fried items, and 'Tsuke-mono' means pickled items. The other accompaniment is just a run-of-the-mill Teriyaki Chicken.

I was more intrigued by the 2 side dishes which is a separate blog, with the recipes.