the best tonkatsu

ever heard of Saboten? it's a tokyo based restaurant that specializes in serving the best tonkatsu ever... crispy on the outside, tender & juicy inside. 

i had the chance to dine in here with my in laws when we visited ahya in south korea. 

after odering, we were given these:

a cup of tea and sesame seeds that came with an interesting stick

not knowing what to do, we discreetly looked at the other tables & see what they were doing with their tools. everybody seemed to be mushing the seeds with their stick. and so we joined the rest of the koreans with the grinding business...

here's ahya seriously doing his little chore... but not knowing what for... 

later we found out, the seeds were to be put with the tonkatsu sauce. the ground sesame gave a kick to the aroma of the sauce. 

my dish came out with salad, miso soup & rice. i thought it was quite heavy and we weren't that hungry from our late lunch so i shared with my mom in law...  

here's what we had: 

fried shrimps & the famous pork cutlet

Saboten Restaurant is in Shinsegae Department Store, Gangnam