![This is Sauce katsudon.](https://i0.wp.com/taru-fukui-album.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/00003292L.jpg?resize=718%2C480&ssl=1)
March/7/2020
If you’re interested in Japanese food, you might know katsudon (カツ丼), which is a bowl of rice with a pork cutlet, egg, and vegetables on top.
However, in Fukui Prefecture “katsudon” refers to a specific variety called sauce katsudon (ソースカツ丼). This is Fukui’s local specialty and is very well known there.
![This is Sauce katsudon.](https://i0.wp.com/taru-fukui-album.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/00003239L.jpg?resize=480%2C715&ssl=1)
Sauce katsudon is a sauce-covered pork cutlet on rice. It’s simpler than katsudon, and you eat it with chopsticks.
Sauce katsudon has a history of more than 100 years. There are a lot of restaurants in Fukui where you can get it, and it’s especially common at soba restaurants.
![Sauce katsudon and Echizen Soba](https://i0.wp.com/taru-fukui-album.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/00006182L.jpg?resize=640%2C427&ssl=1)
I recommend having sauce katsudon and Echizen soba together. Both are local specialties in Fukui. (I’m going to write about Echizen soba in a next entry. Echizen soba: A Fukui specialty with a 400-year history)
Among the many restaurants in Fukui where you can get sauce katsudon, Yoroppaken is the best known. I recently went to Yoroppaken Sohonten and had it there. The restaurant draws a lot of people, and I’d often seen long lines out front.
Yoroppaken was established in 1913 in Tokyo, and in 1924 Yoroppaken Sohonten appeared at its current location in Fukui.
![This is Yoroppaken Sohonten.](https://i0.wp.com/taru-fukui-album.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSC00586.jpg?resize=718%2C477&ssl=1)
This was my first time to go into the restaurant, so I was very excited.(It takes 15 minutes on foot from JR Fukui Station to the restaurant.) It was very clean inside and the tables were shining. I sat down and ordered some sauce katsudon.
After a few minutes it was brought out to me. It consisted of three sauce-covered pork cutlets on hot rice. The cutlets weren’t very thick, so I was easily able to bite pieces off. They were light, crispy, and delicious, and the rice (which also had some sauce on it) was tasty too. I ate the cutlets and rice in alternating bites. The proportion of meat to rice was just right. I was happy with the meal, and afterward I decided I’d like to come again.
People in Fukui love sauce katsudon. I recommend having it at least once if you come to Fukui.
Next time I’m going to write about Echizen soba.
<Yoroppaken Sohonten Information>
Open:11:00 a.m.~8:00 p.m.
Closed:Tuesdays, every other Monday
Website(Japanese):http://yo-roppaken.gourmet.coocan.jp/
(References)
「わが町、グルメ自慢!第14回ソースカツ丼 福井市」(執筆:福井市商工労働部おもてなし観光推進室 青山)(ライフプラン情報誌ALPS2014年7月号Vol.118)
「福井「地理・地名・地図」の謎」(編著:実業之日本社)(発行: 実業之日本社 )