Tori katsu don ($6.90)!
Chinatown hawker tori katsu don: panko chicken cutlet simmered with egg and onion over rice, topped with nori strips, miso soup on the side. $6.90.
Lunch at Chinatown: tori (chicken) katsu don, $6.90. π
What was in the bowl:
- Chicken katsu don: panko chicken cutlet simmered in the egg-and-onion dashi, the beaten egg poured over and left just-set, all over rice
- Nori strips (kizami nori): the shredded seaweed scattered across the top
- Glossy tare finish: the sweet-soy sauce darkening the egg
- Miso soup on the side
Katsu don (γ«γδΈΌ) is the Japanese rice bowl built on a contradiction: you take a perfectly crisp panko cutlet and deliberately soak it. The cutlet is sliced, laid over onions simmering in dashi, soy and mirin, then beaten egg is poured over and cooked until barely set. The panko soaks up the sweet-savoury broth at the bottom while keeping a little structure on top, and the loose egg binds the whole thing to the rice. This is the tori (chicken) version, lighter than the pork tonkatsu original.
The just-set egg is the technique marker: overcook it and you get a rubbery omelette lid, undercook and it puddles. The bowl here landed in the right zone, custardy and glossy, dripping into the rice. The shredded nori on top adds a faint sea-salt aroma that lifts the whole bowl.
Katsu don folklore: in Japan it is the exam-day and pre-match meal, because βkatsuβ (γ«γ) sounds like βkatsuβ (εγ€), to win. A lucky bowl as well as a comforting one.
At $6.90 for a chicken katsu don with miso soup in Chinatown, this is excellent value against the $12-$16 mall versions.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. πππΌ The custardy egg over the panko cutlet was the standout. Reliable budget Japanese, would re-order.
