Noodles
Supakatsu
A hot-plate pork cutlet set on ketchup spaghetti, from a Kushiro diner
The dish is traced to Izumiya, a Western-style diner in Kushiro founded in 1959. In a city not yet used to Western food, and in a climate that runs cool even in summer, the restaurant served its spaghetti on a hot iron plate so it would stay hot at the table, the idea that became spakatsu.
- Origin: Hokkaido Kushiro
- About 900 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
A ketchup-based, Napolitan-style spaghetti gets a freshly fried pork cutlet set right on top. Served on a hot iron plate, it keeps sizzling and steaming through the whole meal, the crisp cutlet and soft noodle enjoyed side by side. A buttery aroma wraps around the ketchup's acidity, leaving a mellow finish that shifts a little more with every bite.
How it's made
Izumiya, a diner founded in 1959, is credited with serving unfamiliar spaghetti on a hot iron plate — the idea that became spakatsu. Pairing the noodles and cutlet on the same plate lets the plate's own residual heat keep the dish hot to the last bite. The plate's heat sometimes lightly scorches the noodle's edge, adding a touch of char, and the cutlet's breading is worked to stay crisp under the heat.
Why it took this shape
Kushiro stays cool even in summer under its sea fog, and food cools fast there. Serving it on a hot iron plate reads as an answer for diners not yet used to Western food, a way to keep it hot to the very end. That cold, foggy climate is what still shapes the idea of turning the plate itself into a heat source.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- What staff say, and how to respondCommon set phrases you'll hear at restaurants, with what they mean and what to do when you hear them. You don't need to memorize them — just recognizing them is enough.
Dishes in the same style
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.