is a breaded and deep-fried ground meat cutlet

Cutlet

Cutlet refers to:# a thin slice of meat from the leg or ribs of veal, pork, or mutton # a fried cutlet# a croquette made of minced meat...

 or croquette

Croquette

A croquette is a small fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, mashed potatoes, and/or ground meat , shellfish, fish, vegetables, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, beer or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, often encased in...

. The meat is usually ground beef, or pork, or sometimes a mixture of the two. It is a rather pedestrian dish often served in inexpensive bento

Bento

is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware...

and teishoku.

The ground meat is mixed with chopped onion, salt, and pepper, and made into patties. Flour is applied on both sides of these patties. They are coated with beaten eggs, and further coated with bread crumbs, and deep fried until golden brown. The bread crumbs, called panko

Panko

is a variety of flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods, such as tonkatsu. Panko is made from bread baked by passing an electric current through the dough, yielding bread without crusts, and it has a crisper, airier texture than most types of breading found...

, are specially dehydrated and have a coarser texture than other bread crumbs. Katsu are usually served with Japanese Worcestershire sauce

Worcestershire sauce

Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...

 or tonkatsu sauce (a variant of Worcestershire thickened with fruit and vegetable purees) and sliced cabbage.

Menchi and katsu are phonologically modified versions of the words "mince

Mince

Mińce is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Choroszcz, within Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland....

" and "cutlet". Katsu may refer to any deep-fried meat cutlet coated with flour, egg, and bread crumbs. It is an example of yoshoku

Yoshoku

In Japanese cuisine, refers to a style of Western-influenced cooking which originated during the Meiji Restoration. These are primarily Japanized forms of European dishes, often featuring Western names, and usually written in katakana.- History :...

, or foods adapted from western cuisine. Katsu by itself usually refers to tonkatsu

Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu , invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or miso soup...

, which is made with pork cutlets.

While menchi katsu is used prevalently in eastern Japan, in western Japan it is more commonly called .