Katsudon!

Mmmm, I love katsudon. Be it pork, chicken or the rare beef katsudon, I love it!

So what makes a proper katsudon?
Katsudon is basically a meat cutlet cooked on egg and onion with dashi broth, laid on top of a rice bowl. Typically it's pork cutlet but chicken cutlet has gained more popularity to non-pork eaters. For me, I love onions and fresh leek for toppings but as you can see, lots of variation can be done.

Katsudon from RamenPlay

What makes GOOD katsudon?
There are definitely benchmarks for good or even extraordinary katsudon. The term "katsudon" typically refer to "tonkatsu" or pork cutlet. For the cutlet itself, you can look for the thickness and tenderness of the meat. Normally the part used are the loins. These what made tonkatsu itself is a tricky job to do. Too thick, the sauce will find it hard to seep in but you'll have a nice chewy meat. Too thin, you'll have it too crispy and sometimes too salty

For chicken katsu, you can always look at the part of the meat used. A proper chicken katsu would always use the thigh meat. Never the breast.

Chicken Katsudon from Ginza Bairin

Now we look at the breading. The crumbs used for katsu breading is typically the rough crumbs. These thick crumbs normally used for Katsu meant for katsudon. The thicker crumbs will make the coating able to absorb more flavor from the broth.

Katsudon from a Singapore foodcourt

finally, it's all about assembly. The proper katsudon would involve the cook to
1. fry a perfect katsu
2. warm up the broth in a small frying pan, cook with a little onion.
3. place the katsu in the warmed up broth to let the broth seep into the meat
4. put the egg (beaten or unbeaten) on top of the katsu
5. close the lid to cook the egg halfway
6. place everything on top of the rice bowl!

so if you see the picture on top, the one from a foodcourt, compared with the perfectly authentic Ginza Bairin on the bottom, then you will see which one makes a perfect Katsudon.

And oh, the small frying pan used to cook the broth always matches the size of the bowl. So a proper serving of katsudon would have the egg covered up all the rice.

Special Kurobuta Katsudon from Ginza Bairin

I'll tell you more about these stuffs I ate in the next posting!

Discern and Digest!

Chris