The "丼" (どん：Don) in Japanese means a "bowl". "定食" （ていしょく：Tei-shoku） means a "combo meal" which is a menu consisting in the combination of a main, side and drink or soup. It may be served on different dishes or simply on a plate. You may be able to order each dish separately but some restaurants offer discount prices for the combo. This is example of the "Tei-shoku".
Yoshinoya （吉野家）
[link]
http://www.yoshinoya.com/menu/set/index.html
Ootoya (大戸屋)
[link]
http://www.ootoya.com/recommend.asp
Japanese 定食 is usually served one main dish with a steemed rice bowl (with or without a small amount of salty pickled veggies) and a bowl of miso soup. The menu sometimes shows only the photographs of main dishes.
Then you may want to learn the name of meat in Japanese because the recognition of meat only from photographs in menus is often difficult. There are major names of meat that are typicaly eaten.
English "Katakana"* "kanji" ("hiragana":"roma-ji") sounds like [example]
Chiken チキン 鳥（とり:tori）[焼き鳥]
Beef ビーフ 牛（ぎゅう：gyu）sounds "gyoo" [神戸牛]
pork ポーク 豚（とん:ton)[豚汁] sometimes it is scribed as トン汁 or とん汁
salmon サーモン 鮭 （さけ：sake）soundes "sahkeh" [焼き鮭]
<em>*"katakana"'s sounds are taken from foreign languages. In this case, these have similar sounds between English and Japanese "katakana". e.g. "サーモン" sounds like "salmon".</em>
So when you see the kanji symbols "焼き鳥", now you know coocked chicken will be on the plate. (<em>Memory tips: 鳥 itselfe looks like a bird. there is the head on the top of it, the wing is the horizontal bar and the bottom is the body with fluffy feathers. When you learn "kanji" symbols, use your imagination. It will be great help to learn these.</em>)
So now you can order 丼 (bowl) and 定食 (combo) menu in Japan. In addition, you know what meat will be served.
Here is the review quiz.
Match the menu written in Kanji to the menu description in English.
1. 牛丼
2.焼き鳥定食
3.焼き鳥丼
4.焼き鮭定食
5. 豚生姜焼き定食
6.牛丼定食
A grilled chicken combo meal
B grilled chicken bowl
C beef bowl
D beef bowl combo meal
E the combo meal with ginger fried pork
F grilled salmon combo meal
[For Japanese beginners]
Please feel free to make a guess in this comment area. The answer will be displayed in a comment in this weekend.
Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Requests? Corrections?
Thank you.
