Last year, after Yoshinoya ran out of its famous gyudon (see here for background), there were multiple cases of ossan (middle-aged men) getting violent and demanding their beef bowls. It seemed as though these men couldn’t understand just what was going on and were hurt by the change.
Well, last week those wounds were ripped open as Yoshinoya resurrected its long-absent gyudon — for one day only in commemoration of the first anniversary of the ban (一年ぶりに、一日だけ）. I don’t know where they got the beef, but it was a momentous day that brought people out of the woodwork to get their hands on that sweet beefy goodness. And right on cue, some people got way too excited about it and did stupid shit like this:
The headline: Car crashes into Yoshinoya on “gyudon resurrection day”
The arrows point to people “still eating” despite the fact that they were almost killed by a runaway car. That’s dedication, folks.
Then we have another man getting violent over the temporary ressurection:
“I just wanted to eat gyudon…” Man arrested after getting violent, shouting “Give me gyudon!”
In the late night of Feb. 12, just after the “Yoshi-gyu” (short for Yoshinoya Gyudon) mania, a man at a Yoshinoya in Hyogo prefecture’s Akashi was arrested by prefectural police after punching a clerk and shouting “Give me gyudon!”
The man arrested by Akashi Precinct was a public works worker of Kisaki, Akashi, Asada Shota (26). According to investigators, the suspect came with a friend around midnight to gyudon sho “Yoshinoya Rte. 2 Suzuri-cho, Akashi” with the intention of eating gyudon. However, they had sold out in the evening of the 11th, and the man angered over the explanations of staff. “I called ahead — why can’t you give it to me?!” he said, punching the clerk in the chest. Police quickly responding to a 110 call (Japan’s 911) arrested the man.
Asada was drunk, and is reported to have said “I just wanted to eat gyudon no matter what.” Also, he had not actually called ahead.
Hey, I can’t blame ’em for still eating after the car crash. That’s precious eating time on a precious, precious day. I just have two questions about this whole Yoshinoya affair: First, and this may be total Japanese blasphemy, but what’s wrong with the beef bowls at Matsuya and Sukiya? I was there last summer and enjoyed many a fine bowl of Gyudon at non-Yoshinoya locations. Where do they get their beef? And second: What’s so great about American beef that a fine corporation like Yoshinoya is willing to forego so much in profits by not getting beef from somewhere else? They claim it’s because American beef is cheaper, better, etc., but honestly, a cow’s a cow; they all taste absolutely fantastic. And a year is surely enough time to make contingency arrangements with Australia, China, or some other cow exporter. Sounds like Yoshinoya’s keeping a thing or two secret from its customers…
When the beef ban was first announced, Yoshinoya and most of their direct competitors had contracts in place to buy US beef. In Yoshinoya’s case, they bought over 98% of their beef from the US. Australia certainly exports quite a lot of beef to Japan, but virtually the entire supply was already spoken for. If you went into a McDonald’s in Japan at that time, they had very large and prominent posters explaining how their beef was, and always had been, 100% Australian. As much beef as Yoshinoya used, McDonalds and other burger joints use far more, and can dominate the supply chain.
Since then some of Yoshinoya’s competitors have started buying Chinese beef, but Chinese meat is not well regarded in Japan. Yoshinoya is the progenitor of the fast-food gyudon, and I imagine that they are not willing to swallow their pride and just use what is, in their minds and the minds of the Japanese public, inferior Chinese beef. As for me, if I were in Japan right now I’d be perfectly happy eating gyudon from Matsuya or Sukiya, but Yoshinoya’s is still the best.
Incidentally, I live just outside of New York City, and Yoshinoya has two Manhattan locations, which happily continue to sell gyu-don.
As a side note, when the first mad cow scare broke out in Japan a few years back after a Japanese cow was discovered to have contracted BSE, I heard that Yoshinoya wasn’t shy about announcing that they used US beef. A few Japanese friends seemed to think it somewhat fitting that they got pinched this time for noru’ing the choshi.
I can relate to that guy who crashed his car. When you’re drunk at 3am in Yokohama, all you need in the world at the moment is an ‘Omori Iccho’ and you will stop at nothing to get it.
When I was in Japan last Summer, Yoshinoya was serving pork instead of beef, I couldnt tell the difference to be honest as I was too excited to have Yoshinoya Gyudon after 6 long years! I wish Yoshinoya would open in Seattle damnit!
Wouldnt you be less likely to get mad cow from beef and more likely to die from eating Fugu sashimi?