The first time I had Japanese Curry was only a year ago. And that was because I always brush it off thinking it’d be like regular curry.
But boy was I wrong and what I an idiot for passing judgement on something I’ve never tried before.
The moonlit sky erupted into a fireworks bonanza the first time I scooped a morsel of Japanese curry into my mouth. I then bit into the delicious chicken katsu—the batter was crunchy beyond belief, yet the chicken inside was moist. But it wasn’t until I bit into the red pickles that I blasted off too culinary heaven.
My curiosity about Japanese Curry came about when my favourite Japanese culture show Begin Japanology aired an episode on the topic.
—
A few months later I stumbled upon the Japanese Curry block mentioned in the video—so I bought it, wish aspirational dreams of turning it into a meal one day.
8 or so months later to today, the curry block expired. So I had to get a new block for my 1st attempt—with beef for low level difficulty of course.
It turned out a bit sour. I don’t know if it was the curry block or the extra wallops of tomato sauce I threw in there ToT
—
Lessons learnt
- The beef was overcooked—this might be because I used steak. And when you overcook steak it goes chewy, hard and dry. My girlfriend suggested using a fattier meat as they go soft and tender with more cooking time.
- Scooping up fatty gunk at the top of the simmering liquid—I’ve always seen mum do this to her phở stock.
- Frying/caramelising the onions
- The rice was dry—I didn’t have enough water in there when it was cooking.
- If it looks shit midway through cooking, don’t panic… yet—before I left the pot to simmer, it looked like garbage. But I trusted the process. So when I lifted the lid 10 mins later I was happy it looked less offensive. It wasn’t until I dropped in the curry blocks that it started to look like something you could put into your mouth
—
What my dish didn’t look like
