Donburi
including gyuudon (beefbowl)

gyuudon (beefbowl) oyakodon (chicken & egg bowl)

A basic yet hearty Japanese dish of cooked riced with heaping helpings of toppings such as meat, fish, eggs and/or vegetables and broth. It can be served with spicy condiments.

The word donburi refers to the actual bowl that the rice comes in. Sometimes this dish is called simply don or -don may be added as a suffix to indicate a donburi dish. For example, katsudon is short for tonkatsu donburi, which is "pork cutlet on rice." There are many other varieties such as gyuudon which is beef strips on rice, oyakodon (chicken and egg) and tempuradon which is tempura fried shrimp over rice.

Donburi is considered one of Japan's "fast foods" and there are chains of donburi restaurants specializing in quick meals for a low price.

Relevance to Urusei Yatsura

Ah, the fabled beefbowl. It's the staple food of the students of Tomobiki High School. Tasty, accessable and most importantly cheap, it's the one bright spot in the dreary school day of a student. If you've watched any Urusei Yatsura at all, you'll undoubtedly notice them constantly referring to gyuudon, or beefbowl as it's often translated. Especially with Ataru, Megane, Perm, Kakugari and Chibi beefbowl seems to be their reason for living. Especially on the TV show, they share an almost unhealthy obsession with it. Nearly anytime there's a question of compensation for a favor, they seem to prefer getting free beefbowl even more than money. Even though there are many varieties of donburi, beefbowl is the only one they'll eat. Probably because it's the cheapest on the menu.

Apart from the fact that students eat it a lot on the show, Urusei Yatsura often does parodies of famous beefbowl franchise Yoshinoya (pictured above) such as a scene in the first UY movie.

There's also the occasional appearances of a masked wrestler who's dressed like a cow, and has dedicated his life to being a connoiseur of the beefbowl. On one occasion he beat the living snot out of Onsen-Mark because he offered him a bowl with extra toppings (the wrestler was offended by this implication that beefbowl wasn't already perfect on its own).

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