The right combo of toppings and condiments turns your boring ham sandwich or whatever into a veritable treat, and for cheap too

Currently enjoying adding red onion, cherry tomatoes and tiny little pickles

Bonus question:

When you eat a sandwich, do you nibble away the crust first

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    When I lived in Japan - I was surprised to learn the word for bread is "pan" - パン. It must have come to Japan via a European language other than English. Pan or panis is Latin for bread.

    • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeah they got it from the Portuguese or Spanish. Japan has an interesting culinary history. Katsudon is basically their version of Schnitzel. They also picked beer from the Dutch tradition and whiskey from the Scots, solid points of origin.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Katsudon is great.

        To anybody reading this - if you visit Japan - have some. You can even have it at whatever nearby local fast food chain restaurant is around. The quality of chain restaurant food is very good.

        Katsudon

        Katsudon (Japanese: カツ丼) is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, egg, vegetables, and condiments.

        The dish takes its name from the Japanese words tonkatsu (for pork cutlet) and donburi (for rice bowl dish).

        It has become a modern tradition for Japanese students to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test or school entrance exam. This is because "katsu" is a homophone of the verb katsu (勝つ), meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". It is also a trope in Japanese police films: that suspects will speak the truth with tears when they have eaten katsudon and are asked, "Did you ever think about how your mother feels about this?" Even nowadays, the gag of "We must eat katsudon while interrogating" is popular in Japanese films. However, as of 2019, police will never actually feed suspects during interrogation.

        History

        Regarding the origin of katsudon, there is an article that "an article was published in the local newspaper 'Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun' dated September 1995 that katsudon was served at the long-established "Okumura Honten" near Kofu in the late 9s of the Meiji era. It means that at least in the late 30s of Meiji, katsudon existed in Kofu. For this reason, the Kofu theory is considered the oldest in the information confirmed at this time.

        Preparation

        The tonkatsu for the katsudon dish is prepared by dipping the cutlet in flour, followed by egg, then dipping in panko breadcrumbs, and deep-frying. Next, into a boiling broth of dashi, soy sauce and onions, the sliced tonkatsu and a beaten egg is cooked.

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Damn now I'm hungry as hell for some Katsudon and the closest Japanese restaurant doesn't serve it. But! They do make a really good Tonkatsu so it scratches the itch

          Like I live in bumfuck nowhere but the local city has a solid Japanese restaurant and a Korean one that makes really good kimchee so if I got some extra cash it's a nice way to treat myself, I usually go once a month to deposit my paycheck at the bank so it's a "why not?"

            • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Hell yeah. It would probably be my last meal if I was facing the electric chair. With a little Unagi on the side.

              • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
                ·
                2 years ago

                my last meal if I was facing the electric chair.

                I'd ask for a special serving of unadon that had two extra slices of eel. Plus tonkatsu or maybe katsudon. I'd be bloated but it wouldn't exactly matter.

                  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    The State of Texas got mad so they - cough - killed last meals.

                    [Ninja edit. I already formatted everything. And then from I googling I learned the murderer was in a "white supremacist prison gang" in prison and was in prison for murdering a black man. I won't be sharing this last meal joke again.]

                    Last meal

                    Texas

                    Lawrence Russell Brewer • Murder • 2011 • Lethal injection

                    [He asked for..]

                    Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side, a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas with fixings, a Meat Lovers pizza, three root beers, one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.

                    Brewer's request was granted, but he refused the meal when it arrived saying that he was simply not hungry, prompting Texas to stop granting last meal requests to condemned inmates.