The Mysterious History of Katsu Curry
Are you a fan of Japanese curry? In Japan it's so popular it has been called a national dish!
Japanese curry is quite different from Indian curry, having a milder, sweeter taste. Served with rice, it's called "curry rice."
One popular variation on this dish is katsu curry: a dish of curry rice topped with a pork cutlet that has been covered in breadcrumbs and deep-fried.
However, who first put pork cutlets and curry rice together is a bit of a mystery.
Three restaurants in Tokyo all say they made it first. One of these is Ginza Swiss, a restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district that opened in 1947.
Ginza Swiss probably wasn't the first restaurant to serve a cutlet with curry rice, but it was the first to call this dish "katsu curry."
In 1948, Shigeru Chiba, a baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants, stopped here before a game. He was very hungry and in a hurry. So instead of asking for separate dishes, he said, "Put a cutlet on the curry rice!" This became his regular meal — and other customers started asking for it too.
Another restaurant, Oroji in Shinjuku, which opened in 1921, served a similar dish, but called it "tondon." Oroji's tondon is still famous, and this restaurant is also said to be the first to name pork cutlets "tonkatsu."
However, the oldest restaurant to serve pork cutlets with curry rice is Kawakin, which opened in Asakusa in 1918. This restaurant created a dish it called "Kawakin-don" — a pork cutlet served on rice with shredded cabbage and topped with curry.
Today, katsu curry has become popular overseas. In the UK, where it's usually served with chicken cutlets instead of pork, some restaurants even celebrate "National Katsu Curry Day" on September 27 by giving free katsu curry to students!
