Niigata Tare Katsudon タレカツ丼

Niigata Tarekatsu is a Japanese Regional Dish from Niigata Prefecture. Tarekatsu is coated in bread-crumbs as thin pork cutlet pieces, dipped in a salty-sweet shoyu sauce, served with a bowl of rice. It is a Katsu that has originated in Niigata City where the local favorite sauce and western style pork sliced port where placed on top of niigata rice to make Tarekatsudon. When not served as a donburi, Tarekatsu can be dipped into a sauce and then it goes on to be cut in a “Sogigiri cut”, which is a cutting technique where you cut at a slant to soak up flavor, often used to cut sashimi.

Being the “Fifth Harbor of Kansai”, in the olden days Niigata City was part of a route that would connect many who traded from other lands in the shipping ports. It would develop to have food that was appreciated by those who lived there as well as the travers with a variation of “Niigata Yoshoku”. There was one particular food that was served in food carts in the Showa Period and that dish was Tarekatsu. 

A Tarekatsuya is a Katsu Shop where a Tarekatsu Master has spent time perfecting their art of frying katsu dishes, but tarekatsu dishes are more than mastering frying techniques. It is slightly more complex in its use of the soup, the sauce, the sides, and the composition of the set meals to accompany one another separately, or if they are chosen to be mixed together. While standard Teishoku (set meals) are designed to be all individual bites, a teishoku made for tarekatsu considers mixtures of ingredients served in a teishoku.

The Eight Wards of Tarekatsu, each tarekatsu came from various backgrounds as many were made up of towns that were merged together. In recipe books or shared notes on making Katsu do not emphasize that it is from the region the methods of making a tarekatsu has its own method that may not be the same as the most used recipe found at popular eateries. The eight wards consist of: Akiha Tarekatsu, Chuo Tarekatsu, Higashi Tarekatsu, Kita Tarekatsu, Konan Tarekatsu, Minami Tarekatsu, Nish Tarekatsu, Nishikan Tarekatsu.

Food Characteristics

Tarekatsudon refers to a Katsudon that is not bound by egg due to texture and flavor absorbing into the egg and less focus in the rice. Tarekatsudon emphasizes the Niigata rice that is full of flavor all on its own, so it is not uncommon to see Takikomi Rice in some of the recipes that are out there. The size varies as many other servings in Niigata with Small (S), Medium (M), and Large (L). While the most iconic variation has five pork-cutlets on a bed of rice the variations at home commonly have katsu-vegetables as well including: eggplant, tomato, asparagus, pumpkin, broccoli.

The Rice

Rice is Koshihikari and varies from plain to single-pot cooked mixed rice depending on the preference of the cook. A Donburi is a bowl dish that contains a whole meal and the rice is the star with tarekatsudon. Special attention is given in separating the ingredients like the dipped katsu, no strong seasonings, and the toppings being separated from the katsu if they happen to have a strong flavor. Shrimp, Vegetables, and cutlets are some of the examples of toppings that enhance rice’s flavor and bringing it to a new level. The rice is usually served with a soup and the sort of soup is either a Miso Soup, Tonjiru Soup, or Noppe Soup. 

The Flavors

There are several main categories of flavors that are seen throughout the prefecture. There are home recipes that are more modern and some that have a long history to them as well. It is not a absolute list of all flavors, but the flavor descriptions are as follows:

Tare (sauce) tarekatsu sauce is the original of the four types, the sauce is made of dashi, shōyu, sugar, and mirin.. It has a dark brown consistency and is sometimes accompanied by mustard. The sauce is made usually with plenty of shoyu, dashi, mirin, sugar. Occasionally sake is used as a way to add another layer of rice flavor to the dish and enhance its taste. Grated Daikon and green onions are sometimes place on top instead of having no topping at all.

Yukimuro (snow-aged) is named after the snow-aged process of ingredients that gives sauce like shoyu a slightly acidic with a fresh and light flavor. It brings out the flavor of the ingredients that it accompanies and is made with snow-aged shoyu, dashi, mirin, sugar, ginger. The flavor is really clean and is sometimes accompanied with yuzu, black pepper, and radish to get a real taste of the snow-country. It is sometimes called “shoyu tarekatsu”.

Ume (plum) ume sauce has a dark brown color, and is based on Japanese Oyster Sauce, Japanese Worcestershire sauce and pureed pickled ume, le lectier pear, pickling juice, Worcestershire sauce, shoyu, ginger dashi, mirin, sugar. The result is that the sauce is tangy, salty, and savory that quickly coats the palate. Sometimes the european pear is substituted in some areas by: Japanese pear, peach, or apple. Shiso leaf with a Umeboshi, and green onions are placed for a nice presentation.

Kare (Curry) kare sauce is a off-yellow color, and is based on Niigata Curry stew and is not thickened and is cooked as a concentrated sauce. It is said to have come from the Sanjo City Niigata where there is a large consumer base for curry roux and Kareya (curry shops). The dish is decorated in the middle of the neatly placed katsu-cutlets that surround a empty space in the middle where there is roasted garlic, menma bamboo, and green onions to make it a focus point of the dish.

Google Search: Tarekatsudon