Chicken and onion simmered in broth, bound with egg and served over rice. In the manga "Maiko-san chi no Makanai-san" (Aiko Koyama, Shogakukan), set in a house where maiko live in Kyoto's geisha district, the heroine Kiyo, who could not become a maiko herself, makes oyakodon for the house and it is such a hit that she becomes its makanai, the one who cooks every day. I made that oyakodon in the tiled kitchen of a Kyoto machiya.
Ingredients
- Cooked rice
- Chicken
- Onion
- Eggs
- Simmering broth
- Mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley)
How I made it
- Slice the onion thin
- Simmer the chicken and onion in broth in a pan
- Pour in beaten egg, cover, and let it set soft
- Spoon over rice and scatter mitsuba on top
Sources: press.moviewalker.jp
This moment in the journey
Oyakodon and a flower-fu soup
I put the lid on and waited a moment for the egg to set soft. When I lifted it, the chicken and onion had soaked up the broth, and the egg lay over them, barely set.
Into a red lacquered bowl went a pink lump of flower-shaped fu, wheat gluten, and then hot water. The color loosened, and carrot and other bits floated out: a clear soup. I spooned the chicken and egg over rice and scattered mitsuba on top. Breakfast in the machiya was ready.
Watch this scene on YouTube0:36
More notes from this journey
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Bubu-zuke (ochazuke from a monaka wafer)
In Kyoto, ochazuke is called bubu-zuke.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyomachiya, the Kyoto townhouse
Under Kyoto City's ordinance, a kyomachiya is a wooden building of traditional structure and form built before 1950, when the Building Standards Act came into f…
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Gion Shinbashi and the banks of the Shirakawa
The Gion Motoyoshi-cho area along Shinbashi-dori, north of Gion, was designated a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings o…
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
A plum-blossom-shaped ochazuke monaka
A plum-blossom-shaped monaka wafer that turns into ochazuke when you set it on rice and pour hot water over it.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Tenkaippin Sohonten (Main Shop)
The first shop of Tenkaippin, the ramen chain born in Kyoto.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toraya Karyo Kyoto Ichijo
Toraya's tearoom in Kyoto, the city where the confectioner was founded.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast