It was a great meal that we had at Ichiho in Aperia Mall couple of months ago, so a happy girl I was when my friend suggested we go back for a meal there.
Now, you might be wondering what the big deal is about this place, like, it's not the only Japanese restaurant in town, it's not the only Japanese restaurant out of town, it's not uber popular nor highly recommended by food bloggers and influencers anything like that, so why the excitement?
Because, my dear friends, whilst Ichiho doesn't appear to have much in terms of pretty, glamorous recommendations, what they have, however, is a lot, a lot of Heart.
I'm not referring to the aesthetics, the plating or the garnishing.
I'm referring to the food.
This is the Heart you'll find from the moment you step into the restaurant/diner/cafe, and it doesn't matter that you don't get all the warm lighting and comfortable seating that you find elsewhere.
I fell in love with their Miyazaki Pork Katsu Don the first time I came.
And since then that's the one thing I want to have.
It don't matter to me if they have a whole host of other rice dishes like Wagyu Beef Steak Bara Kaisen Don, Buta Kakuni Don, Truffle Bara Kaisen Don, Salmon Ikura Don, or Aburi Salmon Mentai Bara Kaisen Don.
Neither does it matter to me that they have interesting dishes like Gyuniku Udon, Tarabagani (King Crab) Chahan (Fried Rice), a huge variety of maki rolls and a huge variety of sushi.
All I want to have (for me and me alone) is the Miyazaki Pork Katsu Don, which, I can tell you, is no small skinny ass poorly breaded undersized cutlet balancing miserably on top of your bowl, but a huge, thick, well-breaded, well-fried chonk of a pork cutlet sitting snugly in the middle of warm Japanese rice over which a generous bed of soft, mushy egg and a scattering of ingredients lie.
I exaggerate not.
Their Pork Katsu Don has to be one of the most heartening, and heartwarming rice bowls I've ever had thus far.
Maybe it's the way it's prepared.
I don't know.
But one interesting thing about this dish is how the scrambled style egg simply seems to morph into the breaded cutlet itself.
Somehow that makes every single bite feel soft, mushy, full of flavor, and exceptionally tender.
I've never needed to chew tediously nor exasperatedly at the katsu. There's no tough, dry meat to contend with. It's all tender with just the right amount of chew.
What's more, all the flavors blend so well together.
My tongue feels the crunch of the breaded batter, I get the taste of the deep fried pork, and all inside my mouth there's the soft silkiness of the egg that wraps over everything I'm having.
The gentle, embracing warmth is unbeatable.
It was a lovely thing to have the entire bowl of Pork Katsu Don all to myself this evening.
But because we had already agreed to share, three slices of my pork cutlet went over to my friend whilst I got five very fresh, very cold slices of salmon sashimi from his cheerful looking Salmon Ikura Don.
It might have seemed like a lot of my portion went over, but there was more than enough.
There were two other dishes on the table.
An appetizer of deep fried salmon skin served with tartare sauce, and five pieces of Ebi Tempura.
Both of which, I have to say, were amazingly good.
Never mind that my meal this evening was fried, fried, fried.
I didn't care.
Not when the salmon skins were crispy, crunchy, so huge and with no greasy aftertaste.
And not when the batter of the ebi was so smooth that I wish I could have just the batter tempura all on its own- never mind the prawn.