Katsudon Pork Cutlet Egg Rice Bowl

Japan (yoshoku evolution, 1913 attributed to Rengatei restaurant in Ginza Tokyo; now a nationwide staple from convenience stores to specialist donburi restaurants)

Katsudon (カツ丼, 'cutlet rice bowl') is a donburi bowl of white rice topped with a tonkatsu pork cutlet that has been simmered briefly in a sweet-savoury dashi-soy-mirin broth and then enveloped in a barely-set, softly scrambled egg before being poured over the rice. The dish is one of Japan's most beloved comfort foods — the twice-cooked cutlet (fried, then gently simmered in broth) and the silky, partially set egg together produce a dish greater than the sum of its parts. The katsu simmering liquid — dashi, soy, mirin, and sometimes sugar in a small shallow pan — must be strongly seasoned but not overpowering: it must flavour both the cutlet and the egg without making either too salty. The egg is beaten with chopsticks (not uniformly — loose strands are better than completely beaten) and poured around and over the cutlet in the simmering broth; the heat of the broth sets the egg to a barely-cooked, custard-soft state before the whole assembly is lifted with a lid and slid over the rice. The defining quality of great katsudon is the egg texture: it should be molten, barely set, yielding — never fully cooked or rubbery.

Sweet-savoury dashi-soy broth soaking into cutlet and rice; silky barely-set egg; crispy (now softened) panko crust; the combination is greater than its parts — the definition of Japanese comfort food