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We had Japanese food tonight with mixed reviews. There wasn’t one aspect that everyone liked and I think there was even some that didn’t like any of it.

Pounding the pork for the Katsudon

Our main was Katsudon, a dish of pork cutlets served over traditional Japanese rice. We began by pounding the pork and then dredging it through eggs, flour, and panko before frying it.

Pork cutlets

While this was cooking we made a sauce, though we had to substitute a couple of ingredients. We couldn’t find the dashi soup base and so used the suggested chicken stock instead, and for the mirin we couldn’t find we used rice wine vinegar. Our sauce was then made with chicken stock, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sugar. This simmered for a while and then we added thin slices of onion.

We then took slices of the meat and cooked it in some of the sauce before placing it atop the rice, made with rice wine vinegar and sugar.

Katsudon over Japanese style rice

I quite enjoyed this rice actually and thought it went really well with the meat, but the meat ended up being salty. I’m guessing it’s because of the chicken stock instead of the dashi, and some wouldn’t eat it because of the saltiness. I think we might try it again if we can find the dashi and see how it goes.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/katsudon-2031259

For dessert we enjoyed a Japanese style cheesecake. This was a little more labour intensive and, though it was tasty, I don’t know that we’d make it again, or at least but often.

Cooking the cheesecake before straining it.

Here we cooked the cream cheese, heavy cream, butter, and sugar in a double boiler and cook until creamy and smooth. To this we added the yolks one at a time followed by the cake flour. Once combined this was passed through a mesh to get rid of any lumps, and then lemon and lemon zest was added.

Cheesecake!

Finally the egg whites were whisked and folded in. I think this is where I began to go a bit wrong as I prepped the whites too early and added them to the mix before the oven was ready. The when I put it into my water bath the pan was a bit small and the water did not get high enough. Then I believe I needed to allow it to cool slower though I don’t recall it mentioning it. I enjoyed the cake but not everyone finished theirs. Some didn’t not like it, but they didn’t overly enjoy it.

Did you know that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan? We are used to eating turkey for Christmas but in Japan almost 3.6 million people eat KFC for dinner and they have more than 3,000 McDonald’s, the largest over any other country except the United States.

In Japan there is a highway that goes through a building, they have sand dunes, and only 12.7% of their land is good for agriculture.

Japan has the third highest life expectancy with men living to 81 and women to 88, on average four years longer than Americans. The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa was the basis for George Lucas’s Star Wars.

Part of BC’s tainted history

Did you also know that Canada, in particular BC, was awful to the Japanese? We petitioned Canada to be able to pull people of Japanese decent who were living within 200km of the coast from their homes and place them in internment camps. We took away their land, their rights, and some of their culture. As per a suggestion from a Japanese couple who’s parents endured it, we watched a short video called Swimming Upstream. This highlights some of what they endured and I invite you to watch and not forget from our past.

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