is a Japanese
breaded and deep-fried ground meat patty; a fried meat cake.
[''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', ] The meat is usually ground beef, pork, or a mixture of the two. It is often served in inexpensive ''
bento
A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, ...
'' and ''
teishoku''.
Preparation
The ground meat is mixed with chopped onion, salt, and pepper, and made into patties. Flour is applied on both sides of these patties. They are coated with beaten eggs, further coated with bread crumbs, and deep fried until golden brown. The bread crumbs, called ''
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 ...
'', are specially dehydrated and have a coarser texture than other bread crumbs. ''Katsu'' are usually served with Japanese
Worcestershire sauce or ''tonkatsu'' sauce (a variant of Worcestershire thickened with fruit and vegetable purees) and sliced cabbage.
Etymology
''Menchi'' and ''katsu'' are phonologically modified versions of the words "
mince
Mince may refer to:
* MINCE, an early text editor for CP/M microcomputers
* Mincing, a food preparation technique in which food ingredients are finely divided
* Ground meat, also known as ''mince'', meat that has been minced
** Ground beef, also ...
" and "cutlet". ''Katsu'' may refer to any deep-fried meat cutlet coated with flour, egg, and bread crumbs. It is an example of ''
yōshoku
In Japanese cuisine, refers to a style of Western-influenced cooking which originated during the Meiji Restoration. These are primarily Japanized forms of European dishes, often featuring Western names, and usually written in katakana. It is an ...
'', or foods adapted from western cuisine. ''Katsu'' by itself usually refers to ''
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 ...
'', which is made with pork cutlets.
While ''menchi-katsu'' is used prevalently in eastern Japan, in western Japan it is more commonly called .
In popular culture
* In the ''
Isekai Shokudo'' light novel series, menchi-katsu became the favourite food of Sarah Gold, after she first discovered the Nekoya restaurant while searching for her grandfather William Gold's secret treasure; menchi-katsu was also William's favourite food.
See also
*
Kofta
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in Balkan, Middle Eastern, South Caucasian, South Asian and Central Asian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meatusually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutto ...
*
List of deep fried foods
This is a list of deep fried foods and dishes. Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, such as cooking oil. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan, and industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum ...
References
{{Reflist
Breaded cutlets
Deep fried foods
Ground meat
Japanese fusion cuisine