Home-style ── Yoshoku (Japanese Western-style dishes)
Pikata
Piccata — thin meat coated in flour and egg, pan-fried in butter
Thin meat coated in flour and beaten egg, then pan-fried in butter. Said to have settled in as a lighter, egg-only-coated line distinct from the breaded fried dishes of yoshoku cooking.
- Meat
What it's made of
A thin slice of meat dusted in flour is draped in a light coating of beaten egg. Unlike tonkatsu's breadcrumb crust, here only the egg coating is pan-fried to a golden finish in butter, leaving a soft lightness with each bite, it's said. Some shops mix grated cheese into the egg before cooking, adding a rich aroma, and white fish is sometimes used in place of meat.
How it's made
The usual method is to dust a thinly pounded piece of meat with flour, dip it in beaten egg, and pan-fry both sides in butter. Because no breadcrumbs are used, the coating is made from egg alone, making the cooking closer to sauteing than deep-frying. Some shops finish it with lemon or capers for acidity, and a splash of white wine is sometimes added for fragrance.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that after Italian piccata was introduced to Japan, it's said to have settled in as a separate, lighter-coated line alongside the breaded fried dishes already established in yoshoku cooking. It's said to have been favored as a dish lighter than tonkatsu and quick enough to make at home, and it also became a lunchtime staple at yoshoku restaurants.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- At teishoku diners, shokudo, and machi-chukaA guide to the teishoku set-meal format, free rice refills, table placement, and paying at a shokudo-style diner.
Dishes in the same style
- Biifu ShichuuBeef and root vegetables simmered in a demi-glace-style sauce. Introduced as a high-end dish at Tokyo yoshoku restaurants in the Meiji era, it's said to have settled onto home tables as packaged roux spread.
- HanbaaguA pan-fried patty of ground meat mixed with onion and breadcrumbs. Said to have shifted toward a fully cooked, bulked-up style to suit a food culture wary of raw ground meat.