Tanindon (他人丼, beef-and-egg rice bowl)

Tanindon begins with a joke in plain sight. Oyakodon is parent and child, chicken and egg. Replace the chicken with beef and the bowl becomes tanin, strangers, though they behave very well once dashi has introduced them. This is weeknight washoku at its plainest: rice, a little broth, sliced beef, onion, and egg.

The one detail that decides it is the egg. Don't beat it smooth. Leave streaks of yolk and white, then pour it in twice: the first pour binds the beef and onion, the second stays soft on top. Hard boiling makes the beef tighten and the egg curdle into a dry mat, which sounds like punishment and eats like it too. Keep the simmer gentle.

Use thin beef with a little fat, sliced across the grain, and let the onion soften before the beef goes in. The onion sweetens the broth, the beef cooks quickly, and the dashi keeps the bowl clean instead of heavy. If spring new onions are at their shun, use them; otherwise a good yellow onion is no apology. Honmono is often like this, less ceremony than attention.