422: Tonkatsu
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
I'm Matthew and I'm Molly and this is spilled milk this year where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have any
Molly 0:10
Today's episode is on let's I'll do the English introduction. Okay, today's episode is on the Japanese pork cutlet called
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:21
Tonkatsu night. Yo episode ah Tonkatsu
Molly 0:27
Matthew I get very confused pronouncing it because I know also that like the ramen like, like rich is called Tonkatsu
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:35
tonkotsu
Molly 0:36
Okay, so you pronounce it with like a longer o sound
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:39
like a more rounder o sound.
Molly 0:41
okay cuz that is Tom cook with an O and this is Tom
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45
versus
Molly 0:46
Takasu with an N got it. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:49
And this we've recently come back from Japan. We did it again.
Molly 0:53
We did it again. This time with our families.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:55
I think I think this might be one of the first of three in a row of Japanese food related episodes. We are I for one couldn't be more pleased.
Molly 1:03
Yes, yes. We took our families to Tokyo for Christmas and New Year. Yep. Matthew got the flu.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:11
But not till the very end. Like I got to basically like after you guys laugh. That's true. That's true.
Molly 1:15
wotso had a had a cold slash flu.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:18
Uh huh. Let's see our influenza episode. I was telling Well, I learned so much about the flu. That now I just want to tell everybody even though it's probably very boring.
Molly 1:28
Yeah, I think we'll talk about Tonkatsu instead. Okay. So so I had Tonkatsu even so even though it's available all over the place in the States, right. I mean, I think even people who don't know the word Tonkatsu will recognize this thing we're talking about.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:42
It's a breaded pork cutlet. Yes. And
Molly 1:44
it's usually served with rice, shredded cabbage. And like a special sauce that is like, almost like a savory, less tomato ketchup.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:54
Yeah, it's it's a sweet and savory sauce. Yeah.
Molly 1:57
tonkatsu sauce. Yeah. The first time I ever had it was actually not in the States, which is surprising because it's easy to find here. But the first time I ever had it was when you and I went to Tokyo together. Gosh, a little over two years ago and we went to this place called Mycenae.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:13
Oh, this is like memory lane.
Molly 2:15
This is memory lane. This is my memory lane of Tonkatsu. We went to the mindset there. There are multiple meisen in Tokyo, but we went to the original which is the Harajuku was okay, we went for lunch. It is it looks quite fancy. I would say the restaurant.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:32
Yes. The restaurant is in an old converted bath house.
Molly 2:35
Oh, is that what it is? Is that way it's laid out like it? I think so. It's kind of rambling. Yeah. It's like a split level house.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:42
Yeah. And there's like there's like private rooms upstairs. There's like a big like, kind of cafeteria room downstairs that we ate in
Molly 2:48
Yes. Yeah. So it's a screaming deal. It's 990 yen, which is 10 bucks. Yeah. For lunch. And that is for either. We'll talk about the two different cuts of meat that it's made from but either of the two cuts, rice as much shredded cabbage as you can eat, grated daikon. think there's a miso soup that comes with that? Yep. Oh my gosh, it's it. I love it so much. I'm at a loss for words. But hold on.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:17
Yeah, went
Molly 3:18
back on this visit. This time. I took my mom and ash and June. And this time we receded and one of the upstairs room. Yeah, sitting at two Tommy tables. And so that was really cool. Because that was such a different vibe from the more kind of cafeteria II room that you and I were in.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:35
Did anyone get additional cabbage like did they come around with like Tom,
Molly 3:39
none of us could manage to like to even make a dent in what cabbage we were given?
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:45
Yeah, I'm like a bad food show host because like I never ever in four seconds of pretty much anything anymore.
Molly 3:50
You're supposed to be like David Chang, and you're supposed to go like David in the alleyway and then go eat some more.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:55
Yeah, I should try that. Yeah. Does it have to be an alleyway or like
Molly 3:58
it's usually an alleyway? It's what I remember reading and lucky peach. Yeah, they do
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:03
have a lot of alleyways in Japan, but like Japan, the streets are so clean. For the most part. I feel like I would need to like clean up my own poop. Yeah, going back since
Molly 4:10
there are not a lot of public trash cans on the streets there. You would definitely need to like bring your own barf bag.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:17
That's true. Oh, wow. So
Molly 4:18
so far, this episode is about vomiting and the flu.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:20
Hmm. And that is a common common misconception that there's no such thing as a stomach flu. No such thing. Oh, really? What's what was called stomach flu is as usually viral gastroenteritis, and that causes gastrointestinal symptoms and fever but not cough. The flu you always get a cough pretty much.
Molly 4:40
Okay. Okay. Okay. This is great. So what about your memory lane?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:44
Okay, so I definitely had the flu sometimes when I was a kid. It was terrible. All day. Well, actually, no, it was great cuz he used to watch cartoon cartoons all day.
Molly 4:53
Okay, so anyway, what about your Tonkatsu Memory Lane?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:56
I don't know when I first had Tonkatsu. Like, I know, I knew it was The thing The first time I went to Japan and I think had already had it maybe at a Japanese restaurant in the US, but like it's it's definitely become one of my favorite Japanese comfort foods.
Molly 5:12
There is nothing to not like about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:14
Yeah, and the first time I went to Japan with my family in 2012 like that was one of the first meals we had was that my son Oh, really. And we met up with some friends from the US who happened to be in Tokyo at the same time. And we got one of those upstairs rooms at my son It was great.
Molly 5:29
Awesome. Well, let's talk about what what this is okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:33
So Tonkatsu tone is is a is a way of saying porque in Japanese and katsu is short for katsu. That's it which is cutlet Okay, so it is a pork cutlet and it is breaded and fried with like a three part breading which I know we've talked about on the show before maybe on the panko episode.
Molly 5:50
I don't remember Would you talk about it again.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:52
Okay, so three part breading I sound way too excited about
Molly 5:56
level bread. It's
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:57
like a split level bread. It's like a cape cod or Cape Cod on Cape Cod or is a cocktail I feel but there's a cape cod Yeah. I grew up in in Portland was a cape cod style house but I don't know what that means.
Molly 6:10
Okay, I grew up in like, like a ranch and now
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:13
split level ranch
Molly 6:15
and now I live in a raised ranch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:17
I never heard of that.
Molly 6:19
Well you and you enter on the second floor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:20
Oh, okay. Oh that's true. You do enter on the second floor and they and then you then if you want you can descend into the red carpeted love dungeon and I don't know why you wouldn't want to
Molly 6:29
well, and so because you enter on the second floor and nobody ever goes down to the red carpet and love dungeon I do at my house. It makes it seem like the red carpeted love dungeon is the basement but it's totally above ground. You are in a raised ranch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:42
I'm I'm really sorry to hear that. No one goes down to the red carpeted love dungeon at your house. We need to talk about this. Okay. I have some ideas. Okay. Okay, so we're talking about Tonkatsu That's right, right. So three,
Molly 6:54
three level breading, I mean, three, right
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:56
three part breading three part breading. It's, it's a breading at three acts. Act One, you dredge the meat in flour, and that's to is to make the egg which is step two stick to it. So you dredge in flour and you and you shake off the flour. So it's kind of very quick coding of
Molly 7:13
what I do when I make chicken cutlets.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:15
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's not it's not at all like strictly a Japanese thing. Okay. And Tonkatsu like it's considered a western style dish in Japan. Okay. And what we'll get to that in significantly more detail, I think
Molly 7:28
so. So you dredge it in flour?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:30
Yes, you dredge in flour. Then you dip it in beaten egg, and you let that drip off. And then you bread it with panko pretty pretty thickly. Okay, okay. And then you fry it. And it's, it's usually deep fried. I mean, at restaurants always gonna be deep fried but for making it at home you can shallow fry and that works great and uses much less oil and is much easier to clean up.
Molly 7:50
Right? Right. Okay. Tell me more. Where did this come from? Like so
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:54
been around for a while. So there is this restaurant in Japan and I you know what I need to I should look up whether it still exists I can't remember. But it was considered like the first yoshoku restaurant which was like Japanese style Western foods, restaurants and things like like beef stew, and Tonkatsu and other fried things. And like spaghetti napolitana which is spaghetti with like a ketchup base tomato sauce. One of my absolute least favorite things you can eat in Japan. And the place is called dangoty which is like brick house and it was in Ginza and opened in 1899 and it claims to be the inventor of Tonkatsu and EBI foot I and like a bunch of these others of these yoshoku dishes it's like it's too good to be true.
Unknown Speaker 8:46
Greedy Yes.
Molly 8:47
I feel like they should share some of the like innovation status with other people
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:53
so any when you when you bread something this way in Japanese cuisine is called a food I dish just like fry you know, something that's that's breaded and yet with panko and deep fried. And if it's like, like horse mackerel, that's oggi food I if it's if it's shrimp, that's me food I but if it's pork, that's Tonkatsu. But it's exactly the same procedure.
Molly 9:14
And because Okay, so for instance, let's talk about how this differs from tempura. tempura is not panko breaded but it's dipped in a batter,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:23
right. And that's and that's just a one step dip
Molly 9:26
and that is not considered that is not considered yoshoku
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:30
right. Oh, so tempura originated much earlier because panko is kind of an industrial process. That makes sense. And so so like panko breaded things did for like the late 19th century, but tempura dates for I think the 17th century and came from Portugal.
Molly 9:46
Very cool. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:47
so yeah, have we done a tempura episode? I don't think we had it's, you know, Tonkatsu and other food dishes are very easy to make at home and like have it be successful on the first try. That is less true of temperate, Southern It takes practice, but it's worth doing
Molly 10:02
the the batteries is kind of temperamental or knee battery or something.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:07
Yeah, remember? Yeah. Because like if it sits around like it the glute, more and more gluten forums and the coding gets tough. Okay,
Molly 10:14
so hold on, let's talk about cuts of meat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:17
Talk about cuts of meat. It's our weekly segment.
Molly 10:22
So what our weekly segments are, let's talk about me and what we learned.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:27
Don't forget memory lane.
Molly 10:28
Okay. And our I don't know what else
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:31
there was there was animal journalism. Right, right. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about cuts of wheat. Last week, it was rump roast. And this week, it's the cuts used for Tonkatsu. So I had to, like try and do some research on this, like, a lot of Japanese googling. And I'm still not 100% sure that the the way the cuts are labeled in Japan is the same as what we call them in the US. But here's what I think. So, whenever you go to a Tonkatsu restaurant, you will get a choice of Rosso katsu or heat a cots and roll through it means roast heat a is filet. And so all you can say for sure Rosa will be fattier and feed a will be
Molly 11:17
in fact, when I heard them say the ladder at my son, I thought they were saying filet.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:22
Yeah, the sound in Japanese. Like it's somewhere between H and F. Yeah. In English.
Molly 11:28
Yeah. When we went June ordered the rasuu. And the rest of us all had the holiday. Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, I know that the Rosso is class,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:39
they're both good. It's not like one is automatically better than the other by any means. Yeah. Yeah. So dosoo is usually shoulders steak or rib chop. So something from like the the shoulder to rib area. And then the heat is usually tenderloin,
Molly 11:58
right? And it's kind of like little medallion.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:00
Yes, because it's a smaller cut. Right.
Molly 12:03
Okay. And so when you've made Tonkatsu in this Tonkatsu in the States, what have you used?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:09
I usually use boneless loin or rib chops and pound them a little bit with a meat pounder.
Molly 12:14
Okay, okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:14
Do you ever pound things with a meat pounder? I don't have a meat pounder but so satisfying.
Molly 12:19
I have pounded things with my
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:21
no you've pounded things.
Molly 12:22
I have pounded things with my like citrus squeezer Okay, yes, it's kind of heavy. But you know it does have a round bottom. So I get this like weirdly like, hammered tin texture.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:34
Like do you remember the if we talked about the hand hammered walk infomercial. Now, this was a thing for when I was a kid, there was this. Did you watch infomercials when you were a kid? You could not avoid them? Right? Right when we were kids, right? So so like you stay up late. We didn't have cable like,
Molly 12:50
were you staying up late to like alternative nation?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:54
Watch. Alternative late naisha Yeah, 120 minutes. Absolutely. Always. Sunday night, I
Molly 12:58
think I can't remember. Headbangers, ball.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:01
Headbangers ball. Yes, later Later, we did get cable and I would stay up and watch like Cinemax.
Molly 13:06
Wait. All those things are on cable.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:08
Oh, yeah. No, that's later we got we got premium cable. basic cable.
Molly 13:12
And Cinemax was the one that always had like, softcore porn. Exactly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:15
Like in retrospect, very soft car.
Molly 13:19
We never had Cinemax therefore. I never got to watch softcore porn. It's not a teenager.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:24
It's guy. He is too old. Too late to watch.
Molly 13:27
I I struggle with porn. Really? Yeah. Because
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:32
I feel like this has got extremely serious.
Molly 13:35
Well, because here's the thing, cuz you're
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:37
not really into it.
Molly 13:38
Well, no, here's the thing. So there's there's porn with the narrative and there's porn without? Alright, porn was your narrative. I think it's god awful. Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:45
sure. I've
Molly 13:46
even tried like queer porn with a narrative. And it just I can hardly I can hardly Thai often have a hard time
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:55
watching good acting.
Molly 13:57
Yeah, no, it's brutal. And then porn without a narrative. I just find. I feel like I somehow I just feel like I have not yet identified them. Like I've not yet identified porn that I felt was for me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:11
So here's the thing I thought was kind of interesting. I think we talked about this when I was in Japan I carry I know I talked about with life of the show, Laurie, we you and I and at different times all went to the manga cafe near where we were staying. Yeah, because like ash needed to do some some like video counseling sessions. Yes. Because that's their job. Yes. And needed like a place with with like, some privacy and good internet access. And there's a 24 hour manga cafe, which is like a cafe where you can read comics or watch videos and like, because it's like a place where like, lots of dudes hang out there. There's 24 it's open 24 hours a pair and like I went in, I went there like when I you know, woke up at five o'clock and just wanted someplace to like, catch up on email and stuff. But like near the drink machine at the maga cafe and I think this is really typical for my cafes, there's a section of Pornhub Okay, and like of course, like, while I'm waiting for my coffee to brew, like, I'm going to check out what's on the on the Porto bag shell. And it
Molly 15:07
seems like Japanese porn it
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:08
was and it seemed like there were two different styles. We're just getting back to what you were talking about narrative
Unknown Speaker 15:13
non narrative, essentially, yes. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:16
so there was one that was like, like the hardcore just like you open it up in like way I'm they're fucking okay and I found this not very interesting, okay. And then there was a kind that was extremely soft core in the sense that it's like, you're like following like the girl next door through her like daily routine and like she'll be in her underwear at some point, but like no nudity, even at all at any point. Hi. Like, I'm like, I kept turning the pages. I'm
Unknown Speaker 15:44
gonna change her clothes
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:46
when she can. But I was like, I think I think I could be into this guide. Yeah. Okay, so
Molly 15:52
Well, that's really good to know.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:53
It was it was interesting. I feel like I learned things about myself.
Molly 15:56
Well, you know, so I think the queer porn, I'm sure. I know. We have many listeners who know way more about this than I do. But in my my, my scant explorations, you know, either it's definitely geared towards like straight dude. Sure. Or it's like so queer.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:13
Like, right,
Molly 16:14
like super queer. You know, like, let's see, like, all the different fetishes we can throw right here. And I'm kind of looking for something in between. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:25
I bet that exists. Sure
Molly 16:26
it exists. And I'm sure that all of our listeners are rolling their eyes
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:30
right now being like Molly on cast calm. What is what is like the medium place of queer porn that Molly should check out? Yeah.
We're talking about cuts of meat. It was our it's our weekly cuts of meat segment,
Molly 16:48
which is related to our points segment now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:50
So okay, so there's the fattier, dosoo or the or the leaner heat aid. They're both great. Whatever you're in the mood for
Molly 16:56
okay. So, Matthew, do you ever do Tonkatsu at home? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:00
do pretty often.
Molly 17:01
Okay. And do you do the full like rice shredded cabbage treatment? Do you dress up and come around with a bowl of more shredded cash to offer to wotso and toxie?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:12
I do. I don't dress up necessarily. But I do make extra shredded cabbage. I usually spread it on the mandolin. So it's really like thin and fluffy.
Molly 17:22
Does anybody managed to eat extra shredded cabbage?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:25
Not really sometimes I do. Okay, cuz I cuz I start with a smaller serving for myself at home. Oh, and the dosa katsu that's usually served cut into strips because it's like a pork chop sized cut. Yes. And then it's cut into kind of thick strips. Yes. And so you can pick them up with chopsticks? Yeah,
Molly 17:42
I love that. They cut it for you. Yes, me too. Tell me about katsu sauce.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:46
Is it something that one buys or one makes? It is something that one buys like you definitely can't like if you get a Japanese cookbook, there will often be a recipe for it. I think like the number of times someone has made it at home is like five.
Molly 18:02
Is it kind of like making ketchup? I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:05
yeah, it totally is because it's it is kind of inherently a commercial sauce. It's not. It's not something that was developed from something that people used to make at home. It's something that originated as a commercial and restaurant sauce I think. And you know, the commercial on the most popular brand is Bulldog, and it's made with like lots of different dried fruits and like Worcestershire sauce and like,
Molly 18:27
definitely has a worst to share. Yeah, saying, Oh, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:31
learned when I was researching for this episode on that. Pr Japanese law. Like, you know Japanese food standards. katsu sauce is a viscous sauce with a viscosity of over of over 2.0 Pascal seconds.
Molly 18:46
What does that mean? I don't know. I'm guessing that it's something like the amount of time it takes for it to like roll around. Yeah. held at a certain angle.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:56
Yeah, I have some in the fridge like we can we can like dispense some it's really like thick. It's start kind of starchy, thick. And I think Hmm.
Molly 19:04
What I also loved, but didn't try, but I loved the look of it was I saw both in our neighborhood grocery store life as well as in combini or convenience stores where they had packaged sandwiches they always had Tonkatsu sandwich and you could you know it was adorable. It's like on this like crustless bread and usually cut into small square. Yeah, rectangles. Yeah. And with cabbage in there and the katsu sauce, right? Yes. On white bread.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:41
Yeah, sometimes cabbage sometimes not.
Molly 19:44
And what is it like having a katsu sandwich cuz you know, like at my son when they bring you the Tonkatsu it is on like a perfectly sized tiny little wire rack. Yes, yes. It's on me. Tiny little wire rack so that it's held up off the plate and won't get soggy before you finish eating it. However, a katsu sandwich is like a sandwiched between two pieces of bread in a refrigerator like what's it like?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:14
Okay, so I know we've talked about this on the show before that in Japan, in America we love crispy things like if we're gonna have like the pork cutlet, it's got to be as crispy as pot as possible, right or like, you know, the, the American equivalent of the katsu sand i think is the, you know, the popeyes chicken sandwich. Or chick fil a chicken sandwich like it's got to be a crispy kotlik right? In Japan, there is equal appreciation if not maybe more appreciation for the second one for the crispy one that's like just fried and it's like, you know, perfectly you know, like gracelessly deep fried And like every bite is crunchy. And the later like, soggy version that's been put into a sauce.
Molly 20:55
I'm more I'm thinking of when when I have ordered like a bowl of udon or a bowl of soba soup in broth with tempura and Yep, when they if you order like shrimp tempura with soba you know they bring you your two pieces of shrimp like sitting in the broth that the soba is in and no matter how quick you are, by the time you fish it out. It is like super SOG falling apart and I was really struggling so
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:27
i i will i would predict that. If you continued ordering and eating this sort of thing. Your experience will be the same as mine, which is that at first I'm like I don't get this like why wouldn't they serve this on the side so it stays crispy? And then like kind of suddenly snuck up on me like oh, like suddenly I get this I like it this way I like how it soaks up so much of the broth and it's like kind of like greasy and has like a spongy texture. Like I'm not describing it very well.
Molly 21:57
No, I get it. I mean it is totally I took
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:59
me a while
Molly 22:00
it's totally a textural thing and I think about how in you know in in Asian cuisines there is much more of an appreciation than in like, you know American cuisine for like chewy and slippery texture so
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:12
like ingredient accent that don't really have any flavor and are they are just because people like the texture. Yeah, that's a big thing. And yeah, lots of East Asian food.
Molly 22:22
Okay, well, we'll just have to go back to Tokyo or we'll do a temporary episode that eating tempura to like experience this transformation.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:31
I don't I think I think even if like that's not a texture you grew up with I think I don't think a katsu sando is as challenging as like a tempura soba. Oh, cuz because it's like, you know, it's like any number of cold leftover meat sandwiches that you have enjoyed,
Molly 22:46
right like cold fried chicken rice or whatever. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:48
yeah, exactly. Okay, so
Molly 22:49
Tonkatsu is served on top of plenty of other things, not just with rice. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:53
I love a katsu Don, which is a Tonkatsu on a bowl of rice with egg sauce usually so that's a sauce made with soy sauce, mirin dashi and like really lightly cooked egg like like egg that's been kind of scrambled into the sauce. Is it kind of like a coddled egg? No, because the egg is like distributed throughout the sauce. Okay, okay. That is delicious. And that's on udaan on rice.
Molly 23:20
Oh, on rice. Sorry. Okay. What is katsu? Don?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:24
That is katsu Don. So it's it's kaatsu on rice. Don't go don't refer don't buddy, which is a bowl of rice.
Molly 23:29
Okay, right. For some reason I was reading it as cuts. Right. Right. Right, which is completely
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:35
eaten by a cat.
Unknown Speaker 23:38
Great. All right. Um,
Molly 23:40
what is me? So
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:41
katsu, you wrote it here on the miso katsu. Nice. Oh, katsu is nagaya dish and it is a Tonkatsu served with a thick, rich, sweet miso sauce on top instead of tonkatsu sauce.
Molly 23:56
I think I would like to try.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:57
Yeah, I don't think I've ever had it actually. It looks really good.
Molly 24:00
And where is Nagoya?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:02
nagaya is is like kind of in the middle of Han Shu, the big island of Japan. It's where the Japanese auto industry is. It's considered kind of like a like a dull corporate town with really good food. Oh, I'd like to go to I would like to go there. Your ideal place really does.
Molly 24:22
Okay, go on at what anything else we should know about? Oh, katsu curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:26
So twice on this most recent trip I went to Coco ichi bond, the the curry chain, which is a fantastic chain restaurant and he bond me number one. Okay, that's okay. It's actually Coco ichi banja. So like number one curry house, okay. And the basic dish there is is curry rice. So it's like a plate with rice and like very saucy curry that you eat with a spoon. And then there are many many toppings to choose from, but the most popular I'm sure is is Tonkatsu and it's like, you know Fried to order at it's great. I just kind of stick it on top of your your Korean rice and the katsu, crispy katsu coating with the curries with the curry sauce. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 25:11
So cool.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:12
There's another like saucy katsu dish that I have not tried but looks really good called today katsu which is from Niigata and northern Han Shu, like North Central, and it is katsu that's been cooked and then dipped in sort of like the sauce that tempura is dipped in so like like a like a soy sauce and mirin based dipping sauce and then usually served on top of rice also sounds great,
Unknown Speaker 25:37
huh?
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:39
So like I missed, I do make Tonkatsu at home. And when I make it at home, I will shallow fry it. Because I hate having to dispose of deep fried oil. Tell
Molly 25:48
me what you do with your deep fried oil.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:51
I mean, what you do with your fried oil, I try to avoid generating it. But then I you know, I wait, I wait for it to cool and then I decanted into a Ziploc bag and put it in the trash.
Molly 26:02
That's what I usually do. But I always feel
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:04
like yeah, like there's so many things could go wrong here. Like aside from the fact that it feels wasteful. Like what if that bag explodes and loads? Yeah, never be the same, you
Molly 26:15
know, things would never be the same. Right? You know, it's like if you spill milk in your cars
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:18
Exactly. Like if you spill milk in your car, or spill katsu sauce all over yourself in some sort. He'll
Molly 26:24
never be the same talk about a life change.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:28
Okay, let's talk about a life change. Molly's new book is available for pre order now. It'll be out in May, right? I know. I
Molly 26:36
was realizing last night it'll be out in less than four months, which I know sounds like a long
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:42
amount of time. I fucking hate how long it takes for books take takes forever. You should finish the book. The editors like this looks pretty good. We're gonna publish it on Monday. Yeah, I think that's how the world should work.
Molly 26:54
It takes so long and right now we're in this like weird stage to where I finished the second proofs. And I'm waiting for the third proofs which are going that I don't remember getting third proofs with previous books, but I'm going to get some third proofs here. And then it's gonna go to the printer I think in March and then we'll finally have copies in April, but it'll be available in May. Such a long slog.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:17
Yeah, that that is slog Oh rific. Yeah,
Molly 27:20
I would prefer to be slogging through katsu sauce.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:24
All right, so what have we learned?
Molly 27:26
We've learned about cuts of meat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:29
We've learned about cuts of meat. We've learned about cuts of porno mag.
Molly 27:34
We've learned about manga cafes, we learned about
Unknown Speaker 27:38
viscosity we
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:39
learn that you should start like this. This restaurant then got a that claims to have invented like seven different classic Japanese dishes. Like if you're starting a restaurant now, which I know people do every day even though I don't know why you should claim to have invented a bunch of famous dishes and just see if you can get away with it.
Molly 27:58
That would be amazing. Hmm. Kind of like when Brandon was opening dinos and one of the things he had stenciled on the window before they even open was world famous garlic knots.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:08
pretty great. Yeah.
Molly 28:10
Anyway, okay. Well, you can find us you've already found us on cast box on Stitcher on. Help me?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:19
Yeah. Apple podcast, iTunes, Google podcasts, iTunes gone no longer exists.
Molly 28:26
iTunes doesn't exist anymore. Nope.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:27
But we are still available on Apple podcasts hopefully, because like we've recently had to make some changes to our website and I'm worried that we're we will have broken everything by the time you hear this. But if you're hearing this probably everything's okay.
Molly 28:41
Anyway, you can also find us [email protected] slash spilled milk podcast, which I think is probably the best way to reach out to us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:49
Yeah, I mean, you can also you can also like email us directly with those erotica recommendations Sure. At contact at spelled out podcast calm.
Molly 28:58
And let's see here. Our producer, our long suffering hardworking producer is Abby Sir catella.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:05
I don't know anything else. Instagram at spilled milk podcast. We said we were gonna post some stuff in Japan. I don't think we don't think we did. Maybe it's not too late. Maybe.
Molly 29:15
You know, soon we're gonna be having our annual corporate retreat. So we'll try to do better.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:21
Just everything everything that it posted. It's a new It's a new year. It's new New Year new us. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna find the porn. That's just right for us. We're going to
Molly 29:33
now that we're 10 years old, read more books. Did you know that our show is 10 years old Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:38
I didn't like how that sounded. But yeah, that's true. Yeah. Happy, Happy 10th anniversary to us again. Yeah, we'll be we'll be milking this one for a while. Yeah. And until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk,
Molly 29:52
the show that
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:53
year to replenish your cabbage. I'm Molly weisenberger. And I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.
Okay, okay, so what were we talking about?