September 20, 2007
Ponta Honke (ぽん多本家)
Yoshoku restaurant established since 1905. I was a bit dazed when I saw the menu...a salad is 1050yen, deep-fried seafood is 3000~4000yen, cow tongue stew is 4200yen...good thing my target was katsu-retsu(i.e. tonkatsu) which is an affordable(relatively speaking) 2625yen. Rice and soup and pickles are an additional 525yen. Seriously, it never cease to amaze me how yoshoku sometimes can be so expensive and yet many people are so willing to pay. I mean you can have a full course French lunch with that amount of money. Anyway, the cutlet turned out to be quite delicious. ^^;;; Coating is thick but crispy. Apparently thick and floury coating is the traditional style for deep-fried things in Japan. I guess people in the past didn't worry so much about calories. The pork is fried twice, first very slowly in low heat oil, and then a quick finish in very hot oil. It did take a long time for it to come. The pork is a thick huge piece, has very little fat, soft and tender, feels a bit sandy in the mouth and not the juicy kind but I like it a lot. Didn't feel ill afterwards but apparently it is fried in lard....There is only a bottle of sauce on the table which I reckon is for the cutlet but I prefer eating it just with salt and mustard. Oh, I sat in the counter(only 4 seats) on the first floor and there was only a salaryman eating alone. He was drinking wine and eating a plate of something, and I overheard his bill was over 13,000yen...^^;; I found an English review here.
Couldn't resist and went back to try "Ebi korokke", i.e. Prawn croquette. With rice and miso soup, it is 3150yen also. Very expensive...but it is so delicious! Inside the perfectly-fried crust are corn cream and big chunks of prawns. Only two croquettes but they are quite big. Though I think the pork cutlet is of better value. I want to try other things in the menu....but the price is just too high!! Rather use the $$ for French...
Menu(J) here.
ぽん多本家 (Ponta Honke)
Add: 3-23-3 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3831-2351
[ japanese food | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
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Haha, that sounds exactly like a typical Japanese gourmet program. ^^;;
Oh the story about Hollandaise sauce sounds scary~~. But half-cooked meat(minced especially) are just as bad, aren't they? I just found this really nice oyakodon(chicken and egg rice bowl) place that I have been visiting all the time recently and the egg served is almost raw...
seat | September 24, 2007 05:57 PM
Luxurious cutlet! I'm sure it's one of those that get features on Japanese food show that talked about how much effort goes behind cooking it, like the pig would be some rare species from some obscure place in China that this Japanese guy brought back, and he raised a tiny stock himself in some remote mountain and would only let them eat some special grass...etc. ^^;;; Then the the oil or flour individually had some elaborate fancy background that's made from scratch by some master somewhere. (I did watch such episode before about some special cutlet).
btw this sounds scary, so apparently Hollandaise sauce are very high risk of food poisoning, I won't eat egg benedict ever again...^^;;
Freda | September 22, 2007 09:22 AM
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