unadon

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).

There are two styles of grilled eel, the topic of which is covered more precisely under kabayaki. Essentially, in the Kantō region style, the eel is steamed before being grilled with sauce, which makes the eel more tender.{{cite book|last=Barber|first=Kimiko |title=The Japanese Kitchen: A Book Of Essential Ingredients With 200 Authentic Recipes

|place=Tokyo|publisher=Kyle Books|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LZQAQAAIAAJ|isbn= 9781904920021}}, p.144- The other is the Kansai region style, which is grilled without steaming.

Una-don was the first type of donburi rice dish, invented in the late Edo period, during the Bunka era (1804–1818){{Harvnb|The East|1991}}, section "Una-don, the First Donburi-mono", p.24- by a man named {{Interlanguage link multi|Imasuke Ōkubo|ja|vertical-align=sup}} of Sakai-machi (in present-day Nihonbashi Ningyōchō, Chūō, Tokyo), 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 {{Nihongo|Ōnoya|大野屋}},{{cite book|last=Mori|first=Senzō (森銑三)|title=明治東京逸聞史|volume=2|publisher=Heibonsha|orig-year=1968|year=1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2UfAQAAMAAJ}}, 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 {{Nihongo|Fukiyachō|葺屋町}} (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 {{Nihongo|Gihei|大谷儀兵衛}}, who started a freshwater fish restaurant business in Sanya, Asakusa, Tokyo, called {{Nihongo|Funagi|鮒儀}} (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, but there are detractors to this view.{{cite book|last=多田|first=鉄之助|title=たべもの日本史|volume=1|publisher=新人物往来社|year=1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LIMVAAAAMAAJ}}, p.?, the author claims to have heard from the current successor to the restaurant that it was not the original innovator to put eel in jubako, and the old restaurant in Sanya was so named because the architecture resembled the jubako boxes Other commentators say unajū appeared in the Taishō era, and by using lacquered boxes, aimed at appearance of luxury. Unajū is usually pricier than unadon.[http://www.excite.co.jp/News/bit/00091184601035.html 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)

{{Commons category}}

• Katsudon
• Gyūdon

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite journal|author=The East|title=Donburi-mono|journal=The East|volume=27|date=Nov–Dec 1991|pages=24–}}

{{Refend}}

{{Japanese food and drink|state=autocollapse}}

{{Rice dishes}}

{{eel topics}}

{{seafood}}

Category:Donburi

Category:Japanese rice dishes