Bara-don: Fujisawa’s Pork Bowl from an Udon Shop

By customer request

The story begins with a customer who thought the shop needed something with a stronger flavour. That suggestion prompted the development of the bara-don sauce. More advice followed, the recipe was refined, and word of mouth helped turn the bowl into a local favourite. Sesame seeds and mayonnaise were customer suggestions too.

There is something to be said for asking for what you want.

The requests eventually extended beyond the restaurant: customers wanted to use the sauce at home. Sato no Udon developed a bottled version for home cooking, giving the bowl a life beyond the shop.

Its reputation travelled further still. The banner outside announces gold at the National Donburi Grand Prix, a competition for rice bowls, three years running. In 2015, that put it among 95 gold winners from 1,345 bowls entered across Japan. By the restaurant’s own account, nine in ten customers order it. The sign above the door still says udon.

An ambitious bowl

Bara-don takes its name from buta-bara, pork belly—the cut with alternating layers of meat and fat also commonly used to make bacon. Don refers to a rice bowl. The fat gives the pork its richness. Here, overlapping slices of pork wear a glossy coating of sauce and a generous scattering of sesame. Shredded cabbage forms a substantial layer between the meat and the rice. It is a straightforward construction, though the portion I ordered made “straightforward” seem a rather optimistic description.

Mine was the tokumori, the extra-large version. It comes with roughly twice the meat of the regular bara-don, with about 1.7 times the rice and vegetables.

The sauce was sweet, but what stood out most was the savoury aroma of the browned pork. The cabbage underneath the meat made the bowl feel lighter than it looked.

A bottle of mayonnaise was supplied for anyone wanting a richer version. The bottle gave me a chance to exercise my artistic talents.

I had added hanjuku tamago-ten, a tempura egg with a soft yolk, served with sauce in a separate small bowl. Beside the sprawling pork, it arrived as a neat, golden round. Breaking it open released the orange yolk into the sauce. It was the meeting everyone had been waiting for.