I heard from an English man that the katsu karē (カツカレー) dish was from English inspiration originally: he told me that the word 'katsu' is coming from cutlet and 'karē' would be curry.
Please can anyone confirm this ?
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I've heard the same claim regarding the origin of Japanese-style curry -- that it somehow has a British inspiration. I don't have time to look it up now, but it seemed plausible when I searched for it before – virmaior Jul 1 '14 at 15:51
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1I once worked with a group of Swedish engineers who were on assignment in Japan, often going out for lunch with them. There was a local restaurant that had some pretty good カツカレー, and the Swedes were amused because to them it sounded like "kat skalle", or "cat skull". – Paul Richter Jul 2 '14 at 2:12
A couple of things to add:
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カツ, it is usually indicative of pork cutlets ([豚]{とん}カツ). Any other types are listed explicitly with what they actually are. For example, chicken cutlets areチキンカツ, beef isビーフカツ, etc. カレーis Japanese style curry, not to be confused withカリーwhich is Indian style curry.- カツ丼 is the greatest food ever!
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1辛{かれ}ぇカレーがすげぇ！ I love curry. So much so that I learned to make it from scratch. :) On a more serious note, I've found it amusing that カレー and the slang pronunciation of 辛{から}い "spicy" match up so well. – Eiríkr Útlendi Jul 1 '14 at 16:48
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1カツ丼より親子丼の方が好き！！ – user1016 Jul 2 '14 at 9:02
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1@Ash ¥高いわ絶滅危惧種ｗｗ – user1016 Jul 3 '14 at 6:55
the katsu karē (カツカレー) dish was from English inspiration originally
Although カレー(curry), or カレーライス(curry rice), has a British inspiration as @virmaior says (Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912) by the British... / 今、日本人が一般に食べている「カレーライス」は、「インドのカレー」ではなく、「イギリスのカレー」です), the dish カツカレー(curry rice with pork cutlet) itself was not inspired by British cuisine; it is a combination of [豚]{とん}カツ(tonkatsu/pork cutlet) and カレーライス, which is said to have been invented and first served at the restaurant called スイスグリル in Tokyo in 1948.
the word 'katsu' is coming from cutlet and 'karē' would be curry
Hmm... yes and no; the term カツカレー was coined from "豚カツ" + "カレーライス", rather than from "cutlet" + "curry".
The term [豚]{とん}カツ was coined from "豚(pork)" and "カツレツ(cutlet)"(The term "tonkatsu" (pork katsu) was coined in the 1930s), though the dish カツレツ(katsuretsu) originated from a French dish "cotelette"(明治時代に日本に伝来したフランス料理のコートレット（Cotelette、英語ではカットレット Cutlet）を原型とする料理である。 / 東京銀座のフランス料理店「煉瓦亭」にて、フランス料理として提供されていた。).
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1By the way, the カツカレー that I had in Wagamama was chicken katsu curry, and the sauce was different from what I'm familiar with. And... their curry-udon was... erm... Oh but I liked their white rice, tsukemono(pickled vegetables) and Gyoza! :D – user1016 Jul 2 '14 at 8:34
The word katsu (カツ) is just the English word, "cuts" written as katakana according to how a Japanese person would pronounce it (ka tsu).
Also, as pointed out above, it may have its origins from the word "cutlets" which is written out as カツレツ (ka tsu re tsu).
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カツdoes not come from "cuts". It's the shortened form ofカツレツ; similar to自動販売機 -> 自販機. – Ninj0r Sep 25 '15 at 1:01
