HOT TREND: KATSU SANDOS

Every cuisine has its equivalent of the chip butty, something fried until golden and stuffed between slices of squidgy white bread, a dish of convenience and comfort. In Japan, it is the katsu sando, thin slices of pork or chicken (or prawns, beef, cheese, minced meat, ham etc), breadcrumbed with panko and fried, served with finely shredded cabbage, tonkatsu sauce and mayo between slices of soft white milk bread with the crusts removed. In Japan, you’ll find katsu sando in every kind of establishment from specialist joints to the corner shop. In the UK (and Australia and the USA) the sando has become a growing trend, jumping from classics at Japanese specialists Nanban Express in Brixton (nanban.co.uk) to reinventions such as Chase Lovecky’s sardine katsu complete with a tiny tail poking out of one end at

Two Lights in Shoreditch (twolights.restaurant). It’s surely only a matter of time before they hit the shelves at M&S. See page 114 for our cheat’s katsu sando.