is a popular

Japanese food Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan ( Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and othe ...

, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet,

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

, and

condiments A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separate ...

. The dish takes its name from the Japanese words ''

tonkatsu is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. It involves coating slices of pork with panko (bread crumbs), and then frying them in oil. The two main types are fillet and loin. Tonkatsu is also the basis of other dis ...

'' (for pork cutlet) and '' donburi'' (for ''rice bowl dish''). It has become a modern

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

for Japanese students to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test or school entrance exam. This is because "katsu" is a

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

of the verb , meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". It is also a

trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

in Japanese police films: that suspects will speak the truth with tears when they have eaten katsudon and are asked, "Did you ever think about how your mother feels about this?" Even nowadays, the gag of "We must eat katsudon while

interrogating Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

" is popular in Japanese films. However, , police will never actually feed suspects during interrogation.

Preparation

The

for the katsudon dish is prepared by dipping the cutlet in flour, followed by egg, then dipping in

panko Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thicken ...

breadcrumbs, and deep-frying. Next, into a boiling broth of

dashi is a family of stocks used in Japanese cuisine. ''Dashi'' forms the base for miso soup, clear broth soup, noodle broth soup, and many simmering liquids to accentuate the savory flavor known as umami. ''Dashi'' is also mixed into the flour ba ...

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...

and

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

s, the sliced tonkatsu and a beaten egg is cooked. * The PDF text misses the egg-dipping step before breading the meat. The video does demonstrate it. * video
Tonkatsu & Katsudon recipe
* web page linking to the video and PDF
Experience Japanese Home Cooking

Variants

Other bowls, made of cutlet and rice but without eggs or stock, may also be called ''katsudon''. Such dishes include: * ''sōsu katsudon'' (sauce katsudon): with

tonkatsu sauce Tonkatsu sauce is a thick sauce served with tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlet). It is a thick (viscosity over 2.0 pascal-second, per JAS Standard) Japanese Worcestershire-type sauce. It is similar to a brown sauce, and can include a fish sauce, ...

or Worcestershire sauce, from regions such as

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

Kōfu is the capital city of Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 187,985 in 90,924 households, and a population density of 880 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Overview Toponymy Kōfu's name means "c ...

Gunma is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima P ...

Aizuwakamatsu is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 118,159 in 50,365 households, and a population density of 310 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Geography Aizuwakamatsu is located in the west ...

and Komagane * ''demi katsudon'' or ''domi katsudon'': with

demi-glace Demi-glace (, 'half glaze') is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word ''glace'', which, when used in reference to a sauce, means "icing" or "glaze." It is tradition ...

and often

green peas The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

, a specialty of

Okayama is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 720,841 and a population density of 910 persons per km2. The total area is . The city is ...

* ''shōyu-dare katsudon'': with

based

tare sauce is a general term in Japanese cuisine for dipping sauces often used in grilling (''yakitori'' and ''yakiniku'', especially as ''teriyaki'' sauce) as well as with ''sushi'', ''nabemono'', and ''gyoza''. It can also be used to make the soup for ...

, Niigata style * ''misokatsu-don'': '

with a sauce made with

hatchō miso is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 386,999 in 164,087 households, and a population density of 999 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Okazaki is in the coastal plains o ...

on rice, a favorite in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

Sauce Katsudon.jpg Fukui sause katsudon.jpg Aidukatudon.jpg TareKatsudon Matsuriya.jpg If pork is substituted with beef, it will be '' gyū-katsu-don''. A variation made with chicken katsu and egg is called ''oyako katsudon'', which is distinguished from ''

oyakodon , literally "parent-and-child donburi", is a ''donburi'', or Japanese rice bowl dish, in which chicken, egg, sliced scallion (or sometimes regular onions), and other ingredients are all simmered together in a kind of soup that is made with soy sa ...

'' where the meat in the latter is not fried.

References

External links

{{Rice dishes Donburi Japanese meat dishes Japanese rice dishes

Preparation

Variants

See also

References

External links