Basics

What you need to read a tonkatsu menu and to understand what you are eating.

• Reading the pork on a tonkatsu menuBreed, cross, SPF, brand, aged, jo. The words on a tonkatsu menu are not all the same kind of word. What each one tells you, and what it does not.
• A short history of tonkatsuTonkatsu has no known inventor. What the records show, what rests on restaurants' own accounts, and which popular claims we do not repeat.
• Tonkatsu's relatives around the worldSchnitzel, cotoletta, kotlet schabowy, Shanghai's fried pork chop and more. How each one relates to tonkatsu, and how much of each story is on record.
• Glossaryrosu, hire, teishoku, jo, kurobuta, SPF…