Eats/Reads

The chicken katsu was so good, we decided to try pork katsu. 4 thin pork shoulder steaks, about 500g total Everything else the same as the chicken katsu I trimmed the fat from the pork steaks and whacked them thin with the flat of a big knife. The pork was perfect at 4 minutes a side. We doubled the hot chilis in the tonkatsu sauce, and SMCC thought it was spicy enough, but I could have had it much spicier. We did red cabbage as a side dish. We sliced a whole cabbage thin, steamed it until it was soft, tossed it in a little toasted sesame oil and served it with a little light soy sauce. Quite nice.

We had ground beef and cabbage that needed to be eaten. So we thought: Thai meat balls! We had all the sauces but didn't have the fresh mint and basil, which really would have been better and more Thai than parsley in the meatballs. Still this was tasty for a quick meal that used up an odd assortment of ingredients in the fridge. Next time: Get those fresh herbs. Try other veg besides cabbage, which was fine but something else might be better. Not sure what yet. Our Thai friend recommends the following brands for sauces: Squid brand fish sauce, Healthy Boy brand soy sauce and Healthy Boy brand sweet chili sauce (called 'chicken sauce' by Thais, though it's used on a number of dishes). We found them at a local Chinese market. These are the sauces we use, and they are great. When we can't find Healthy Boy soy sauce, we use Pearl River, which is also nice. Also: we always use light soy sauce - dark soy sauce should only be used for colour, not flavour. Meatballs: 62...