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2008-01-09

>tonkotsu vs. tonkatsu

tonkotsu - 豚骨, とんこつ, pork bone broth (ramen)
tonkatsu - 豚カツ, a breaded and fried pork cutlet


Here are a few words related to Japanese tonkotsu.

>ton –
豚, pig (original Japanese: buta), the same Chinese character (kanji) is don in Korean, tun in Mandarin.
>kotsu –
骨, bone, same character is gol in Korean, gu in Mandarin.
>KATSU – カツ, English “cut” from “cutlet”. I capitalized it since it’s a new foreign word, sort of like karaOKE からオケ, “empty orchestra” or orchestra with no lyrics.
>g
yu – 牛, cow/ox (original Japanese: ushi) and there IS such a thing as “gyukotsu” ramen. Same character is u or oo in Korean, niu in Mandarin.
>cho – bird, chicken (鳥/鶏) (original Japanese: tori). Same character is jo in Korean, niao in Mandarin.
>gara – がら, an original Japanese word meaning leftovers or skeletal remains, so torigara soup would be poultry bone-based or chicken bone-based.
>niku -
肉, meat. Yook in Korean, rou in Mandarin. I have no idea how you'd say mincemeat.

Examples:
butaniku or tonniku is pork
tonshi is lard (it sounds archaic)
gyuniku is beef
choniku, toriniku is poultry
gyunyu is milk
torimeshi is chicken and rice

And guess what, no one's stopping you from having tonkatsu tonkotsu ramen! (Eeeeww)

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