Katsudon Explained

is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, egg, vegetables, and condiments.

The dish takes its name from the Japanese words tonkatsu (for pork cutlet) and donburi (for rice bowl dish).

It has become a modern tradition for Japanese students to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test or school entrance exam. This is because "katsu" is a homophone of the verb, meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". It is also a trope in Japanese police films: that suspects will speak the truth with tears when they have eaten katsudon^[1] 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" is popular in Japanese films. However,, police will never actually feed suspects during interrogation.^[2]

Preparation

The tonkatsu for the katsudon dish is prepared by dipping the cutlet in flour, followed by egg, then dipping in panko breadcrumbs, and deep-frying. Next, into a boiling broth of dashi, soy sauce and onions, the sliced tonkatsu and a beaten egg is cooked.^[3]

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^[4] or Worcestershire sauce, from regions such as Fukui, Kōfu, Gunma, Aizuwakamatsu and Komagane
• demi katsudon or domi katsudon: with demi-glace and often green peas, a specialty of Okayama
• shōyu-dare katsudon: with soy sauce based tare sauce, Niigata style
• misokatsu-don: tonkatsu with a sauce made with hatchō miso on rice, a favorite in Nagoya

If pork is substituted with beef, it will be gyū-katsu-don.^[5] A variation made with chicken katsu and egg is called oyako katsudon,^[6] which is distinguished from oyakodon where the meat in the latter is not fried.

See also

• Donburi: Japanese bowls of food on rice
  • Gyūdon: with simmered beef
  • Oyakodon: with chicken and egg
  • Unadon: with eel
• Tonkatsu: deep fried pork cutlet
  • Katsukarē: another tonkatsu dish with curry sauce and without eggs,^[7] served in a plate with spoon, not in a bowl with chopsticks.
• Escalope

Notes and References

1. Web site: Investigating the linguistic allure of hard-boiled detectives. 2008-06-10. 2021-08-15. The Japan Times. Shoji. Kaori. https://web.archive.org/web/20200919092126/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2008/06/10/language/investigating-the-linguistic-allure-of-hard-boiled-detectives/. 2020-09-19. live. en.
2. Web site: We eat a meal to remember…at a Japanese police station in Fukuoka. 2019-01-24. 2021-08-15. SoraNews24. McGee. Oona. https://web.archive.org/web/20190124170534/https://soranews24.com/2019/01/24/we-eat-a-meal-to-remember-at-a-japanese-police-station-in-fukuoka/. 2019-01-24. live. Sunakoma. Masanuki. en.
3. Web site: Experience Japanese Home Cooking. 2021-02-10. 2021-08-15. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan). https://web.archive.org/web/20210815153610/https://tasteofjapan.maff.go.jp/experience/images/home.pdf. 2021-08-15. live. p4:Tonkatsu, p5:Katsudon). en.
   • 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
4. Web site: Japanese kitchen – Sauce katsu-don. 2020-03-01. 2021-08-15. Embassy of Japan in the UK. Yamada. Akira. https://web.archive.org/web/20210815193442/https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/webmagazine/2015/11/kitchen.html. 2021-08-15. live. en.
5. Web site: Sōsu katsudon. 2016-05-14. 2021-08-16. TV Asahi. Doi. Yoshiharu. https://web.archive.org/web/20160625051958/http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/okazu/contents/onair/backnumber/2016052/. 2016-06-25. dead. ja. ja:ソース牛カツ丼. Worcestershire sauce katsudon.
6. Web site: Kitchen puipui – Oyako katsudon. 2019-01-09. 2021-08-16. Mainichi Broadcasting System. Urakami. Yutaka. https://web.archive.org/web/20190902150114/https://www.mbs.jp/puipui/pm_kitchen/2019/01/09.shtml. 2019-09-02. live. ja:キッチンぷいぷい 親子カツ丼. Kitchen puipui – parent-and-child cutlet donburi.
7. Web site: Tonkatsu. 2021-08-16. japan-guide.com. en.