カツ丼

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: カツ丼 combines カツ, a shortened term for cutlet, with 丼, a rice-bowl dish, and is read かつどん.
• Basic usage: It denotes a bowl of rice topped with a pork cutlet and accompanying ingredients such as egg.
  • 昼食に熱いカツ丼を注文しました。 identifies the lunch order, while この店のカツ丼は卵がふんわりしています。 describes the soft, fluffy egg on this restaurant's dish.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Reading of 丼
  • 丼 can be read どんぶり by itself, but it is read どん in the dish name カツ丼, producing かつどん.
• に in 昼食に
  • に in 昼食にカツ丼を注文する marks the meal occasion for which the dish is chosen, while を marks what is ordered.
• カツ丼 and とんかつ
  • とんかつ focuses on the pork cutlet itself, while カツ丼 is the complete rice-bowl dish topped with the cutlet. Egg may be part of it, as in the second example.