Miso Katsu – A Taste of Nagoya
The people of Nagoya make one of their local specialties (Miso Katsu) by starting with a typical tonkatsu dish (a deep fried pork cutlet normally served with shredded cabbage). They pour a thick, miso-based sauce on top instead of the traditional soy sauce-based tonkatsu sauce. To make the miso sauce, start with the red miso paste popular in the Nagoya area. Add pork, dashi (fish broth), a little sugar and slow-simmer the sauce for hours. As a result, the miso sauce has a rich, earthy flavor and a touch of sweetness that compliments the flavor of the crispy, fried pork cutlet. You can add condiments such as mustard, shichimi (seven spice) or ground sesame seeds.
There are numerous Miso Katsu restaurants in the Nagoya area. We recommend Yabaton (http://www.english.yabaton.com). In addition to the many restaurants all over Nagoya, they also have restaurants in Tokyo, Osaka and Toyama. You will recognize their stores instantly by their logo: a pig dressed as a Sumo wrestler.
