For those of you familiar with
Japanese food, you may know that the suffix
don means something served over
rice. For instance, a
tendon would be
tempura served over
rice.
So I'm in this
Japanese restaurant and looking over the menu. Not really feeling too
hungry, so nothing really catches my eye until I see two
kanji that I recognize and seem incredibly out of place in this situation. It reads oyakodon, with the
kanji for
parent (oya) and
child (ko). This puzzles me for a moment. Parent and child rice? Is this a
family meal or something? What could they possibly put in a rice dish that makes it extra-appropriate for families?
My
curiosity and my desire to practice my
Japanese overtake me and I ask the
clerk what oyakodon is.
He told me that it was
chicken and
egg served over
rice.
It took me ten seconds to realize what the
name meant.
I am still not sure if the
name was meant to be
funny, in a sort of
morbid way, or if it is meant in all seriousness.
For more information on how to make this dish yourself, please consult the
oyako donburi node.