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Katsudon (Japanese: カツ丼) is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, egg, vegetables, and condiments.
The dish takes its name from the Japanese words tonkatsu (for 'pork cutlet') and donburi (for 'rice bowl dish').
It has become a modern tradition for Japanese students to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test or school entrance exam. This is because "katsu" is a homophone of the verb katsu (勝つ), meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". It is also a trope in Japanese police films: that suspects will speak the truth with tears when they have eaten katsudon[1] and are asked, "Did you ever think about how your mother feels about this?" Even nowadays, the gag of "We must eat katsudon while interrogating" is popular in Japanese films. However, as of 2019[update], police will never actually feed suspects during interrogation.[2]
- ^ Shoji, Kaori (2008-06-10). "Investigating the linguistic allure of hard-boiled detectives". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 2020-09-19. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
- ^ McGee, Oona; Sunakoma, Masanuki (2019-01-24). "We eat a meal to remember…at a Japanese police station in Fukuoka". SoraNews24. Archived from the original on 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2021-08-15.