Ginger soy sauce sautéed Pork 豚肉の生姜焼き

Kissaten 喫茶店 is a Japanese coffee shop. You can not quite find the equivalent in the  U.S.. Besides coffee and tea, many Kissaten serve a light breakfast or lunch. Many years ago, we used to have these "morning set" breakfasts while we were visiting Japan and stayed in Asakusa 浅草 (These sets typically consist of a boiled egg, small salad, coffee and thick-about one inch-slice of toast with a discounted 2nd cup of coffee). Now, these are mostly replaced by Starbucks or similar Japanese chain coffee shops and the breakfast menus are nearly identical to the U.S. counterparts. Kissaten lunch menus may have included Spaghetti Neapolitan (precooked spaghetti warmed up in ketchup with sautéed mushroom-canned and pre-sliced-, onion, and ham; the Japanese interpretation/invention of a pasta dish, which has no resemblance to the name sake) and Japanese-style curry and rice カレーライス. Some kissaten, near the University I attended (which was eons ago), regularly served a Japanese style "Bento" box lunch beside more common kissaen lunch items. The items in the lunch box changed daily but the most popular and frequent item was the ginger soy sauce sautéed pork or "buta-niku no shouga-yaki" 豚肉の生姜焼き. I think this dish is also perfect for Izakaya.

The classic cut of pork used in this dish would have been very thinly sliced pork shoulder or "buta no kata ro-su" 豚の肩ロース肉 (I guess "ro-su" must have derived from "roast"). Here I used small pieces of pork tenderloin thinly pounded. Probably not the best cut of pork for this dish. I marinated thin pieces of pork in a mixture of soy sauce (4 tbs), mirin (2 tbs), and grated ginger (1/2 tsp) for 10 minutes in a Ziploc bag. You could add grated onion (2 tbs) in addition, if you like. I then sautéed the meat with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on both side (1-2 minutes each). I added a small amount of marinade (1-2 tbs) at the very end so that the sauce will coat the meat and become glistening. I served this with pan sautéed scallion segments. Although any drinks will go with this dish, I have to have sake.