Lest you think Japanese cuisine is all healthy with its fish, rice, seaweed and noodles, meet the katsu:
That’s breaded and deep-fried goodness my friends, and it was my lunch at Katsu-Hama.
Katsu (breaded and fried cutlets of pork, chicken or other meat) is extremely popular in Japan, and you see it on many sushi menus here in the U.S. At Katsu-Hama, katsu is pretty much all they do, and they do it very well.
The first thing Danielle, Maridel and I noticed upon entering was the glorious smell of fried food (which immediately attached itself to our clothes for the rest of the afternoon).
There were also all sorts of fun things to look at and play with. The server brought over my miso soup, then set down a mortar and pestle with sesame seeds.
I had no clue what they were for (the rice maybe?), but frankly, I was too lazy to ask, and plus it was fun crushing the seeds anyway. There were a variety of different sauces, including this one in rather unfortunate looking containers.
I wasn’t positive which sauces were meant for my katsu, so I ended up trying them all (which I’m sure was all wrong, and the servers were probably looking on in horror as I defiled their cuisine… next time I’ll ask a few more questions.).
The ladies enjoyed their pork katsu and egg on rice.
And I scarfed down my minced beef and pork katsu — not only beautiful to look at, but awesomely crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Greasier than other katsus I’ve eaten, but that was probably due more to the minced meat than the breading.
Good stuff and well worth a trip for the katsu lover. If you find out what you’re supposed to do with the sesame seeds, please let me know.
Katsu-Hama
11 East 47th St.
New York, NY 10017
212-758-5909