Japanese Food or Western Food?
Is tonkatsu a Japanese dish or a Western dish? This question cannot be easily answered and people have a lot of different opinions about it. Tonkatsu is a pork cutlet — a dish usually associated with Western food. It is covered with breadcrumbs, deep-fried and eaten with a brown sauce.
Many Japanese people regard it as Western food in terms of how it is cooked; however, it cannot be found on any European menu. It was indeed created in Japan, but you won’t find it listed on a menu of traditional Japanese food.
A Japanese cultural anthropologist, Ishige Naomichi, cleverly resolved this difficult problem. “Tonkatsu differs from sautéed pork in that it is cut into several pieces to be eaten with chopsticks. That makes it a Japanese dish. On the other hand, sautéed pork is to be eaten with a knife and fork, so it should be considered a Western dish.” In short, what matters is the way we eat food. This idea suggests a close relationship between food and silverware.
Is tonkatsu a Japanese dish or a Western dish? This question cannot be easily answered and people have a lot of different opinions about it. Tonkatsu is a pork cutlet — a dish usually associated with Western food. It is covered with breadcrumbs, deep-fried and eaten with a brown sauce.
Many Japanese people regard it as Western food in terms of how it is cooked; however, it cannot be found on any European menu. It was indeed created in Japan, but you won’t find it listed on a menu of traditional Japanese food.
A Japanese cultural anthropologist, Ishige Naomichi, cleverly resolved this difficult problem. “Tonkatsu differs from sautéed pork in that it is cut into several pieces to be eaten with chopsticks. That makes it a Japanese dish. On the other hand, sautéed pork is to be eaten with a knife and fork, so it should be considered a Western dish.” In short, what matters is the way we eat food. This idea suggests a close relationship between food and silverware.