Toruko rice is a popular dish in Nagasaki. It brings together pilaf rice, pork cutlet (tonkatsu), spaghetti, and, for good measure, everything is covered with demi glace sauce. How it came about and why the name included “Toruko” (Turkish) will remain a mystery.* Nevertheless, it is one of those Western-inspired dishes that found in Nagasaki the perfect ground thanks to centuries of foreign influences. It can be found in every cafe in town and there are infinite variations.
The visit
I tried the dish in a cafe called Nicky Arnstein (or Nicky Earth Tin Hamamachi in the backtranslation from Japanese ニッキー・アースティン浜町店 that you can find sometimes on the web, including on Google Map) in a side street of the Hamamachi covered shopping street. The cafe was started in 1973 and apparently it was named after the owner’s favorite character (from Funny Girl musical).
The cafe is quite old and at dinner time it was empty. What was remarkable was the phone-directory-size menu with hundreds of permutations in the ingredients of the dish.
They only have a Japanese menu, but they show some exemplars in the shop window. I opted for one version with a fried pork meatball, potato croquettes (I asked for an additional one), beef strips and the rest. It was a filling dish as you can imagine; my spaghetti were under-cooked though.
The check
It cost me 1,108 yen (a little over 10 USD), including 100 yen for the extra croquette. It is the cost of a normal lunch set in most places. Should I visit Nagasaki again, I will probably keep room in my belly for something more interesting.
Where in Nagasaki:
2-20 Hamamachi.
In Japanese: 長崎県長崎市浜町2-20.
*This blogger seems to have a rational explanation for the name… but it is all speculation anyway.