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is a dish originating in Japan. It consists of a '' donburi'' type large bowl filled with steamed white rice, and topped with fillets of eel ('' unagi'') grilled in a style known as '' kabayaki'', similar to
teriyaki ''Teriyaki'' is a cooking technique in which foods are grilling#Overhead grilling, broiled or Grilling, grilled with a Glaze (cooking technique), glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Although commonly associated with Japanese cuisine, Fish ...
. The fillets are glazed with a sweetened
soy The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source of f ...
-based sauce, called ''tare'' and caramelized, preferably over charcoal fire. The fillets are not flayed, and the grayish skin side is placed faced down., p.63 Sufficient ''tare'' sauce is poured over so that some of it seeps through the rice underneath. By convention, pulverized dried berries of sanshō (called Japanese pepper, although botanically unrelated) are sprinkled on top as seasoning. It is also very popular outside of Japan, particularly in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.


Variations

Variations include ''unajū'' (鰻重, the same dish served in '' jūbako'' (重箱), food boxes often lacquered), ''nagayaki'' (長焼き, the eel and rice are served separately), and ''hitsumabushi'' (ひつまぶし, finely chopped eel kabayaki scattered (mabusu) over rice in a wooden rice container (hitsu) from
Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
). There are two styles of grilled eel, the topic of which is covered more precisely under '' kabayaki''. Essentially, in the
Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
style, the eel is steamed before being grilled with sauce, which makes the eel more tender. The other is the
Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...
style, which is grilled without steaming.


History

Una-don was the first type of '' donburi'' rice dish, invented in the late
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, during the Bunka era (1804–1818), section "Una-don, the First Donburi-mono", p.24- by a man named of Sakai-machi (in present-day Nihonbashi Ningyōchō,
Chūō, Tokyo is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself in English as Chūō City. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kyōbashi and Nihonbashi wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. C ...
), and became a hit in the neighborhood, where the Nakamura-za and Ichimura-za once stood. The first eatery to sell it as a business is claimed to be ,, p.270, quote;:"鰻丼を始めたのは日本橘葺屋町の大野屋で、天保の飢饉当時に、大丼の鰻飯を天保銭一枚で売ったのが当って" in (adjacent to Sakai-chō) at some indeterminate time, but presumably before the theaters burnt down in 1841 and moved off. After the great famine of 1844, it started selling the ''unadon'' for one oblong Tenpō-sen coin, and became a hit. As for ''unajū'', where the eel and rice is stuffed in ''jūbako'' boxes, one theory ascribes its originator to one , who started a freshwater fish restaurant business in Sanya, Asakusa, Tokyo, called (later known as Jūbako, the current generation of the restaurant is in Akasaka). According to this version the ''unajū'' was already around by late
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, but there are detractors to this view. Other commentators say ''unajū'' appeared in the
Taishō era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group ...
, and by using lacquered boxes, aimed at appearance of luxury. ''Unajū'' is usually pricier than ''unadon''.うな重とうな丼、違いは名前と器だけ
(Excite News, 22 July 2007; author: Wakako Tasachi (田幸和歌子)


See also

* Katsudon *
Gyūdon , also known as , is a Cuisine of Japan, Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion, simmered in a mildly sweet sauce flavored with ''dashi'' (Bonito, fish and Kelp, seaweed stock), soy sauce and ''mirin'' (sweet rice ...


Notes


References

* {{seafood Donburi Japanese rice dishes