Yoshinoya - Breakfast of Champions

I've been wanting to do this post since our 2006 trip to Tokyo and finally got around to it. Welcome to my "ode" to Yoshinoya!

My younger sister once teased me because I liked eating at Yoshinoya when we visited Japan in 2006. "Why would you want to eat there?" she asked when I mentioned having breakfast there a few times. Established in 1899, Yoshinoya is the name of the largest "gyudon" or beef bowl restaurant chain in Japan. Considered "fast food" in Japan, a beef bowl or gyudon is basically a bowl of rice covered with pieces of thinly sliced beef and sometimes onion. The beef and onions are usually kept simmering in their own sauce which allows them to be served quickly when an order is placed, hence the reference to fast food.

There was a Yoshinoya located about a block from our hotel, and we ate there a few times for breakfast. (I understand there are over 1,000 locations alone in Japan.) While they definitely don't serve the same kind of food, I guess my sister puts Yoshinoya in the same category as a McDonalds, which is why she was amused that I would fly all the way to Japan to basically eat at a fast food joint.

In the United Staes you can even buy gyudon in your frozen food section (well, in Hawaii at least). Just pop it in the microwave and you're good to go.

I truly enjoyed having breakfast as Yoshinoya during our trip. I've always been a breakfast guy who prefers something savory as opposed to sweet. No pancakes or fruits for me, give me a plate of salty breakfast meats, eggs and rice and I'm a happy camper! Throw in some miso soup and some pickled vegetables and I'm in heaven! (As a side note, ironically all of us had some type of "pork bowl" as opposed to a beef bowl at the time of our trip. It turns out that Yoshinoya was not serving any beef while we were up there. Apparantly Yoshinoya buys the majority of it's beef from the United States. When Japan banned the import of American beef in 2003 due to mad cow disease, Yoshinoya was forced to stop selling beef bowls. I understand that the ban was lifted in 2005 or 2006, and that Yoshinoya has resumed selling beef bowls but on a very limted basis. Go figure?)