Visit Japan and you can see the popularity and volume of
curry rice served and eaten in Japan. Japan serves a dish
that actually differs from the curry and rice that started
on the Indian subcontinent, spread throughout South Asia,
and then moved to other parts of the world. If you would
like to provide a meal that almost everybody in Japan will
eat, curry rice may be your best option. In Japan, only a
limited number of people dislike curry rice.
Although curry leaves are from the curry tree, a tree
native to India, not all curry contains curry leaves. When
we hear rice and curry, or curry and rice, curry does not
refer to the curry tree. Curry is thought to come from the
Tamil word "kari," which refers to gravy or sauce, not
spices. Curry uses many different spices that vary
according to the dish and the region.
We visited the Curry Spices Department at Wally's
Delicatessen and found the following spices listed: bay
leaves, cardamom pods, cayenne pepper, chilli powder,
cinammon sticks, coriander powder, cumin powder, curry
powder, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, garam masala,
paprika, black peppercorns, turmeric, curry leaves, star
aniseed, coconut milk, tamarind paste, vegetable ghee. The
British spellings are because Wally's is in England.
Curry in Japan is served in a number of ways including
curry rice, curry udon, curry bread, curry buns, katsu
curry, and dry curry. Curry rice is simply curry served
partly over and partly next to rice in the same shallow
bowl. Curry udon is curry served over udon, which are thick
wheat noodles. Curry bread is bread with curry inside. The
last one, curry buns, are just like the pork buns you can
find in Chinese dim sum and other restaurants. Instead of
pork inside, the buns have curry inside. Katsu curry is
usually a deep fried pork cutlet on rice with curry poured
on top of it and next to it. The word "katsu" comes from
cutlet. Dry curry is simply curry without all the sauce.
Dry curry is served over rice too.
Returning to the difference between curry rice served in
Japan and the rice and curry from the Indian subcontinent,
curry rice can almost be thought of as a sweet curry
flavored stew. The sweetness comes from fruit. House Foods
Corporation is the largest curry company in Japan. One of
their most popular brands, Vermont Curry, was launched in
1963.
S&B Foods, Inc. is another major Japanese curry company. We
visited their home page to discover what they call the
Japanese curry story. According to S&B, the first Japanese
to eat curry and rice was Kenjiro Yamakawa when he was
served curry and rice on a ship while traveling to the
United States in 1871. Yet, the Japanese curry story tells
us that he only ate the rice. We are left unsure of who
actually was the first Japanese to eat curry. The S&B story
continues, telling us that a curry recipe was introduced to
Japan in 1872.
The Japanese viewed curry as Western since the British
introduced it to Japan, not the Indians or other Asians.
Today curry is an inexpensive dish and most curry
restaurants are not pricey. In 1870s Japan, however, curry
and rice was expensive. The S&B narrative tells us that the
cost for curry rice was 800% more than a bowl of plain
noodles.
After 1872, curry became increasingly popular in Japan.
Japanese chefs altered the recipe, creating the curry that
we eat today in Japan. If you live in the United States and
would like to try Japanese-style curry, you could either
find packaged Japanese curry or you could look for a
Japanese curry restaurant. The Japanese curry packages are
sold in many Asian grocery stores. Making the curry is just
like making stew. For Japanese curry restaurants, check the
Internet for one near you. If you are in California, you
could try one of the 11 Curry House restaurants in
California, a restaurant chain owned by House Foods America
Corporation. We can't guarantee you will like the curry,
but having Japanese curry may be a pleasant experience.
----------------------------------------------------
This article is from Aaron Language Services at
http://www.aaronlanguage.com/
We provide English writing services to a primarily
Japanese clientele. If you are an experienced editor,
specializing in medicine or the hard sciences, please
contact us via personnel on the menu on the left side of
our top page.
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=56496
0 comments
Post a Comment