Culinary tale of tonkatsu as iconic dish of Mount Nam

Korean-styled tonkatsu served with white rice, cabbage salad, cream soup, kimchi and peppers are served at a tonkatsu restaurant in Mount Nam, Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Western dish introduced from Japan takes root as commoner's food in Mount Nam

By Lee Hae-rin

Tucked away in the bustling heart of Seoul, against the scenic backdrop of Mount Nam, is Sopa-ro ― a hillside drive lined with an array of restaurants, all offering the same menu featuring giant-sized Korean tonkatsu.

Tonkatsu is a portmanteau of "ton," meaning pork, and "katsu," a simplified Japanese pronunciation of cutlet.

The tonkatsu served in these eateries in Namsan, a Korean name for Mount Nam, is the same the classic version found in other snack stands across Korea. The pork is flattened until it spans the width of the plate, then breaded and deep-fried to a golden crisp and served with sweet brown sauce. A bowl of plain cream soup, white rice, cabbage salad and kimchi are served with each tonkatsu.

These restaurants all label themselves as Tonkatsu restaurants on their signboards, although they sell many other Korean dishes like soup and stew. However, they still receive long lines of visitors from in and outside the city looking for the fried pork, as they had in the 1990s, when the dish of Japanese origin became a regional specialty in Seoul, a phenomenon reflecting the city's evolving socioeconomic and cultural landscape.

Tonkatsu restaurants lined up along Sopa-ro, next to Namsan Cable Car in Mount Nam in central Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

How tonkatsu became a Seoul staple

The dish arrived in Korea through the Japanese influence during colonial occupation in the 1930s and 1940s, some decades after the western dish was introduced in Japan at the end of the 19th century. It was only in the 1960s that western cuisine became popular in Korea, but it took even more time for tonkatsu to became popular to the public here, according to food columnist Park Chung-bae.

"At the time, when most Koreans had hard time making a living, fried pork was not a popular dish for the public," Park told The Korea Times, Wednesday. "Western cuisine was a luxury in dining out, a fancy dating course for a young couple."

Food columnist Park Chung-bae / Courtesy of Park Chung-bae

However, the trend changed as the ingredients for the fried pork became more available in the rapidly developing country, Park said.

The pork industry grew rapidly in the 1950s due to rising demand for imports from Japan in the 1950s, while a nationwide campaign to consume more flour-based food to counter a rice shortage in the 1960s made wheat flour more available in the market. Plus, the mass production of cooking oil started in the 1970s with the rise of a food maker, Dong-bang-you-ryang, which remains today as Sajo, he explained.

Boom led by taxi drivers

Tonkatsu's real breakthrough on Mount Nam came thanks to taxi drivers. The first places to serve tonkatsu in the area were originally restaurants catering to drivers, located near taxi garages down the mountainside.

Park Je-min, 62, who owns one of the first restaurants to serve tonkatsu in Namsan, told The Korea Times he originally served soft tofu stew for taxi drivers over 30 years ago.

"At the time, tonkatsu was not a popular dish, but I wanted to add something new and decided to try serving it here. So I visited a tonkatsu restaurant in Seongbuk-dong to try it myself and brought it here to Namsan in 1992," he said, referring to the neighborhood in northern Seoul near Mount Bugak, another area famous for tonkatsu.

Photos of Park Je-min's old tonkatsu restaurants from 1992, which first started as restaurants for drivers and served tonkatsu to taxi drivers, hang at Park's restaurant in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

It was an immediate success.

Park's restaurant quickly saw lines of taxis parked along the street as drivers flocked to try the fancy western dish at an affordable price and neighboring restaurants started doing the same.

According to 72-year-old taxi driver Yu Gil-jun, his first tonkastu "tasted like heaven," reminiscing his first time at one of the drivers' eateries in Namsan.

"It was a culture shock," Yu recalled, "These days, tonkatsu is everywhere and the one in Namsan might not taste so special. But at the time, it was very rare. We would go there many times, line up and have a full dish."

To tailor Yu and other taxi drivers' busy schedules, where time means money, these restaurants mashed pork to make it thinner, which can be cooked and served more quickly. The dish, which naturally grew bigger in size and more visually impressive, went viral among taxi drivers.

Soon, it was no longer a gourmet meal for the upper class, but a popular fast food for taxi drivers.

Middle class influence

According to the food columnist, the burgeoning middle class also played a role in the dish's popularity

"At the time, going up to Mount Nam on a cable car and enjoying the cityscape of Seoul was the best tourist route. Middle class people in Seoul grew to afford their own cars and had more free time to drive around. Namsan was one of their destinations, and tonkatsu was what they had," he said.

A couple enjoys a nighttime view of Seoul city at an observatory on Mount Nam, April 12, 2022. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

This is around the time that the Korean lexicon "cutting with a knife" started to mean fancy dining culture for Koreans who were yet unfamiliar with western cuisines and only used spoons and chopsticks to eat.

"'Cutting (food) with a knife' was a symbol of wealth, formality and high-class culture," Park said, explaining how the western dish served with a fork and knife at an affordable price became a sensation for people in the 1980s.

The dish grew more adaptable to Korean taste buds over time. The crunchy crust with thick breaded layers of fried flour was softened by pouring sauce instead of serving it separately, as the Japanese do, and spicy side dishes were also offered to get rid of the oily taste.

"For Koreans at the time, the dish was a lot greasier than it is to us today, because they never had such a fried dish. Naturally, restaurants added a Korean touch to the western cuisine, serving it with kimchi, pepper and chili paste,"

Park, the restaurant owner, echoed the columnist's view and said he wanted to "Koreanize" the western dish by serving Korean side dishes.

Resurgence of Namsan tonkatsu

The street regained popularity with Disney+'s Korean original series, "Moving," especially among the young generation unfamiliar with the history of Namsan tonkatsu.

A dinner date scene at tonkatsu restaurant in Mount Nam from the series, "Moving" / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

In the 20-part action hero thriller, the parents of the main character, played by Zo In-sung and Han Hyo-joo, are secret agents with supernatural powers who meet each other at the National Security Agency headquarters, which was then located in Namsan.

Undercover, they fall in love with each other while having dinner at a tonkatsu restaurant in Namsan and the dish becomes a symbol of their love.

For newcomers and regular visitors alike, the hillside restaurants continue serving tonkatsu. One of the most cherished memories of serving tonkatsu in Namsan over 30 years is seeing the big smiles on the faces of customers, Park said.

"So I just keep making tonkatsu, every day, day and night. I just keep doing my job," Park said, trimming the cabbage that will be served with the dish.

Fortress Wall of Seoul in Namsan with N Seoul Tower / Courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization