October 31, 2014

Menchi/メンチ

I was born in 1960 (35th year of Showa) at Hiroo, Shibuya, Tokyo. What do I mean by that? Well, I want to make it clear that for me, menchi (short for menchi katsu) were, and still are, quite similar to korokke (Japanese croquettes). The only difference between them is that the former contains more ground meat (pork) while the latter contains little or no ground meat. I am no big fan of present-day menchi, which are supposed to be something like hamburger patties breaded and deep-fried.
私は昭和35年、東京都渋谷区広尾で生まれました。それがどうしたかと言うと、私にとってはメンチとはコロッケによく似たものだった、それに今でもそうであることをはっきりさせたいのです。両者の違いは、前者には(豚の)挽肉がより多く入っていて、後者には挽肉がまったくまたは殆ど入っていないということだけです。私は現在のメンチ(ハンバーガーのパティにパン粉を付けて揚げたようなもの)は、あまり好きではありません。

As part of supper tonight, I was meant to make tonkatsu. It suddenly occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity to make menchi as well. So, I did.
今日の夕飯には、豚カツを作ることになっていました。突然、メンチも作るいい機会だと思いついたので、作ってみました。
Hitokuchi (one bite) tonkatsu in the plastic tray and 12 menchi, large and small.
トレイの上に一口カツ、メンチが大小12個。
Look very tasty, don't they?
とても美味しそうでしょ?

Naturally, I had mine with lots of shredded cabbage.
もちろん、千切りのキャベツも一杯食べました。
I guess I should have deep-fried them for another 2 minutes or so until the ground pork is done. Anyway, the home-made menchi were tasty enough.
もう2分程度、挽肉に火が通るまで揚げるべきだったと思います。ともかく、自家製のメンチは十分美味しかったです。

But, I have to wonder. Store-bought menchi are tastier. I guess menchi should be bought, not made.
でも不思議に思います。市販のメンチのほうが美味しいです。メンチは作るものではなく、買うべきものだと思います。
.

6 comments:

  1. Your Pork Dish looks great. Along with that Cabbage peels. Tasty snack for the evenings indeed.

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  2. seeandoh: Yes, really delicious! My menchi contain ground pork, onion, and potato. In Japan, shredded cabbage is a very common garnish for fries.

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  3. Very interesting. Haha! Actually now that I think... I put so much ground meat and mushrooms into korokke that they don't contain more than half potatoes.... so it's something between korokke and menchi katsu... If I understood you don't precook the meat before mixing with potatoes?
    (In Tokyo depachika underground stalls they put calorie values of korokke, tonkatsu and such. When I saw the huge difference between tonkatsu and menchi katsu, I never bought menchi katsu... It scared me! I must taste it next time.)

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  4. Sissi: The main reason why I wanted to make menchi was that episode 1 of Shinya Shokudo 3 featured menchi.
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28mpqb_%E6%B7%B1%E5%A4%9C%E9%A3%9F%E5%A0%823-01-foodforfun_webcam

    But, Shinya Shokudo's recipe was a hambuger patty version:
    http://www.meshiya.tv/news/158.html

    So, I started searching for a good recipe, and found this:
    http://portal.nifty.com/kiji/120320154400_1.htm
    This guy made six different types, three korokke and three menchi, and concluded that he liked the menchi made with raw ground pork, pan-fried onion, and boiled potato (meat to potato ratio of 1:1) the best.

    Do make menchi any way you like and let me hear what you think!

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  5. Thank you for the links! (Sorry I came so late... holidays... very busy ones!). I'll try these menchi because we both love deep-fried Japanese food (alas...).

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