Beef bowl is a delicious meal. What if you could have it when dealing with a disaster situation? Yoshinoya, the beef bowl restaurant chain, also makes a line of emergency rations for this event. They have a line of canned rice dishes (meshi) that include gyudon, butadon (pork side meat), beef yakiniku, pork ginger fried rice, mackerel, and yakitori (grilled chicken). The cans are about the size of a North American regular salmon can and weigh in around 160 grams (5.6 oz) and provide about 300 calories. Its a pretty condensed food source as the cans are packed full. These cans were originally introduced in 2019 and have a three year shelf life.
I picked up a can of their signature beef bowl and after a year and a half of storing it in my cupboard I finally tried it out. I wasn't sure what to expect from this emergency food, but I sure hoped it would taste like beef bowl! Japan has a wonderful lineup of different types of emergency rations, many of which are designed to supplement regular meals as they can be used in regular rotation more easily - this is something that North American rations don't really do. Many of the Japanese dishes are quite tasty and are superior to MREs in flavour and variety.
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| A can of Yoshinoya Emergency Beef Bowl. |
The beef bowl can comes in bright orange with black printing, matching the Yoshinoya brand colour scheme. Each of the other can types comes in different colours to help tell them apart. It is a pretty typical Japanese can with an aluminum top that pops off and you often find cans of fish with a similar setup from Japan.
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| Lid of the can with opening directions. Lift tab up, pull and don't cut yourself on the sharp edges. |
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| Side of the can. Big letters say Yoshinoya. Little letters say Canned Rice Beef Bowl and Emergency Canned Food at the bottom. |
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| Ingredients. |
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| Nutritional information. |
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| When opening the can, be careful not to cut your hands or mouth on the cut edge. Please consume immediately after opening. Depending on the storage temperature, white spots or spots may appear on the surface. Do not heat the can over an open flame or in a microwave. After opening, you may see spots or spots, but this is due to ingredients derived from the raw materials and is not a problem. If you are concerned, warm it up a little before eating. It can be eaten at room temperature. It can be eaten easily by boiling the whole can in hot water for about 10 minutes. If you want to warm it up, the can will be hot, so be careful not to burn yourself when cooling or opening the can. It will taste better warm. |
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| The can compared to a normal size can of tuna. |
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This is what a regular gyudon looks like. Your canned version will not be the same.
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When I opened the can I saw a thin layer of sliced simmered beef on the top. It actually does resemble beef bowl that way. It uses short grain brown rice instead of white rice and has a bran / grain smell to it from the brown rice. The odors are actually quite neutral at room temperature and become more prevalent when warmed. Brown rice is actually more nutritious having more minerals and vitamins, and it holds up better in the canning / cooking process.
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| Actually does look like beef bowl with the meat on top. |
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| I tipped the contents out onto a microwavable bowl to heat it up. I'd rather not boil it in the can unless I had to. You can tell the beet is a layer on top of a block of rice. |
The flavour of the beef was definitely like the simmered beef from the restaurant. It was tender and fatty and came in very thin slices. The flavour of the sauce was mild with a savoury taste that had hints of soy sauce, ginger, onion, and dashi. The sauce was really more gelatinous than saucy so it really stuck to the rice. This is probably a good thing in an emergency ration as you're getting everything to eat more easily. The rice was soft but had texture as it has the bran on the rice still. This wasn't exactly tasting like the beef bowl you would get in the restaurant, but I'll bet it tastes better than expected when cold or at room temperature when it is quite firm. The portion is small, so you would need crackers or something else bulk out the meal.
I'd would try the other versions of Yoshinoya's canned rice dishes if I ever get a chance as this one was definitely interesting and tasted good enough to chow down on in a hurry.
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| After heating, the rice sauce loosened up and you can see it starts to slump. |
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| The rice when it is mixed with the beef. I don't have a closeup as I forgot to take a picture while eating. Oops. I guess I was too involved in tasting. You can see some of the beef in the shot. |
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