SUPER MOM SATURDAYS!

Introducing........: SUPER MOM SATURDAYS!

So what is it.....?
It's that random time around every Saturday Afternoon, when my mom gets off work early and all my friends are still asleep in bed. Since both me and my mom are pretty experimental people, we tried to find the latest culinary treasures scattered across the city.

Rules are simple, I research for restaurants. She foots the Bill. Every Saturday Lunch meal is different. There are some Hits and Some Misses. It could either be dirt cheap or Uber expensive. Since my mom pays for everything, I called Saturday Lunch 'Super Mom Saturdays' and its usually the culinary highlight of my week. I will probably post some restaurant separately as my Super Mom Saturday category post just for its uniqueness. So yeah....call me a Momma's Boy...

So this time, me and my mom tried the infamous 丼吉日本吉列專門店餐廳 Tonkichi Tonkatsu Seafood. Simply put, it is a place that treats Deep Fried Breaded Pork Cutlet/Tonkatsu seriously. The first branch that opened in Causeway Bay, and due to its recent publicity by 蔡瀾 on TV, the place is pretty much packed 24/7. You need to wait at least 2 hours before getting a seat, its stops handing out tickets by 8.30 even though they close at 10.30. And reservations need to be made 3 weeks in advance. Crazy isnt it? All this for Fried Pork? Do they honestly dip in the pork in liquid gold?

Fortunately, the owner softly opened their 2nd branch across the harbor in TST. So we get to try out the place before all the publicity and the lines arrived. It was hard to find already, hidden in the basement of a office building, obviously trying to avoid any public exposure. Usually a good sign of a great japanese restaurant. We managed to secure a nice tatami lined booth seat in the corner of the restaurant.
When we sat down, the waiter handed us a mortar and pestle with sesame seed inside. She educated us on how we need to grind up the seed into powder, before pouring the sweet pork dipping sauce on the left. This is to prepare the sauce before the tonkatsu is served. I was already a little overwhelmed by how serious the place is treating its food...kinda giving me the creepy feeling that we are preparing for some kinda of religious cult ritual or something. We ordered the standard 2 person meal set which looked ridicously small in the photo of the menu, and at a hefty $300 price tag, we were ready for a big stab in the wallet. But when the waiters served the meal set, it came with soup, refillable rice, refillable shredded cabbage and special daikon vingear dipping sauce. The table became completely loaded with plates and dishes.....so maybe it might justify its $300 price tag....(Not My Photo) I added an extra $28HKD to upgraded my miso soup into their famous pork soup. The aroma the soup gives out was already saliva dripping good. It was surprisingly thick, with flakes of pork oil floating on the surface. It had a great taste of depth of the pork and other vegetables. Kinda like the pork bone soup based of the Hakata Ramen I had in Shinjuku, where they cook their soup in these giantantic pressure cookers. Amazing start to the meal.The cutlets themselves consist of a large slab of pork chop and a few balls of pork back. the shredded cabbage comes as a side as well as decoration. Each table actually comes with a jar of sweet seaweed vinegar which is used to mix with the cabbage, instantly turning it into a cabbage salad. The cabbage themselves are so finely shredded that it taste like tiny dried noodles. The sauce was also amazingly good with a nice ting of sourness. I was enjoying the cabbage so much that I forgot to eat my rice.
And finally, the main character. The Tonkatsu. Sort of indescribably in words actually. The first bite into the Katsu immediately made me into a believer.

The pork is surrounded by a fine bread coating on the outside, giving it the spiky and crunchy texture. Its not like the crappy Katsu Dons you get in normal japanese restaurant, the other layer is not soggy and will not fall off from the pork, and it was not oily at all. Somehow the restaurant manage to make the thick piece of pork extra tender too. Unlike those tough and dry meat texture you usually get from other restaurant.

The self prepared sesame sauce was a tad too sweet as dipping sauce for the pork, it hides too much flavour of the pork. The daikon vinegar sauce turned out to be the more superior sauce, the sour vinegar actually brings out the pork flavour even more.(Not My Photo) The waiter handed us some freshly sliced and really sweet japanese watermelon as dessert on the house. A real nice after touch to the meal.

The constant surprises, the decor and the presentation of the place makes me certain that the meal is definitely worth $300. But who cares? Mom is paying for the bill anyways hehehe

Final Verdict: Definite Try! You will never have anything quite like it before. This place convinced me that Deep Fried Pork is SERIOUS BUSINESS

Stay Tune for Next Week's Crazy Super Mom Saturday!
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=10055