Aburafu Don

aburafu donTomewheat glutenhattolocal food

Miyagi · Tome

38.6919°N, 141.1875°E

Aburafu is a stick of wheat gluten that has been fried in oil rather than baked, a Toyoma speciality made here since the Meiji period as a protein source in an inland town with no fish. It is light, dry and porous, and when it is simmered it soaks up whatever it is cooked in.

Aburafu don takes that and treats it exactly as a katsudon treats a pork cutlet: sliced, simmered with onion in a sweet soy stock and set with beaten egg over rice. It looks like a katsudon and eats lighter, and it was devised in the 1990s by a local restaurant to use the town's own product. It has since spread across Tome and is now the dish the city is known for. Hatto, a hand-torn flour dumpling in soup, is the other one.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Varies by establishment

Closed: Varies by establishment

Entrance Fee

¥800–1,200 per bowl

Best Season

Year-round

Visit Duration

45–60 minutes

Getting There

Access Information

Served across Tome, especially in the Toyoma district, at restaurants, canteens and hotels; aburafu itself is sold at shops and roadside stations in the city. The dish is sliced fried wheat gluten simmered with onion in a sweet soy stock and set with egg over rice. Hatto, a hand-torn flour dumpling served in a soy-based soup with vegetables, is the other local speciality and is widely available in the same restaurants. Individual establishments' hours, rest days and prices vary.

Insider Guide

Premium

**It is a katsudon without the pork.** Same construction, same sauce, same egg, with fried gluten instead of a cutlet. Understanding that before it arrives helps. **Aburafu is fried, not baked.** Which is why it soaks up stock and holds its shape. Ordinary fu would collapse. **Buy sticks to take home.** Shops and roadside stations in Tome sell them dry. They keep for a long time and are the most portable souvenir the city has. **Have the hatto too.** Hand-torn dough in soy soup, the older of the two local dishes, and usually on the same menu. **It is a 1990s invention.** Devised locally to use the town's own product. That is recent, and nobody in Tome pretends otherwise.

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