Special Dinner Planned: Macau Pork Sandwiches!< absolutefutility >
I caught an episode of Food Wishes with Chef John where he cooked a pork sandwich out of Anthony Bourdain's cookbook.
The pork cutlet is marinated in a mixture of garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and rice wine. It is supposed to have some Chinese five-spice powder in it, but I'm not a huge fan of that flavor so I thought I'd just sprinkle it on at the end when the cutlet is breaded in flour and panko and then deep fried.
It is served on some Texas toast. It is very reminiscent of a pork katsu sandwich that you would find in Japan.
In fact, the only real difference is the Katsu sauce. This Macau sandwich doesn't have it, but Chef John served it with "sambal butter", which is just a compound butter made from spicy chili paste mixed with butter.
But I don't do "spicy chili" anything, so I wasn't going to make that.
The Katsu sauce, however, might be something I can manage. Katsu sauce, in simplest terms, is like a Japanese BBQ sauce. It is incredibly simple: soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and cayenne.
The real problem I have is figuring out what to serve with it? I don't see the point in serving food that you have to eat with your hands WITH food that you have to eat with utensils. You should have a food that is either everything you can eat with your hands or everything you can eat with utensils.
The problem is...I don't have anything in stock that would fit the "eat with hands" category. Fries? Onion rings? All out! I have chips...I think that might be as far as I'm willing to go with this dish!