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There are certain customs restaurants in Japan follow when serving dishes that originated overseas. Fried rice should come on an octagonal plate. Steak must be accompanied by a few wedges of carrots, steak fries, and corn.

When it comes to curry and rice, the roux should never completely cover the grain. Ideally, it should be poured over half of the plate, allowing the customer to enjoy mixing the two together in whatever ratio they feel is best.

Trying to keep with the spirit of this tradition caused problems for one Tokyo restaurant, though, when its special plate of three kinds of curry ended up containing an unfortunate and unintentional hidden image.

The suido café is located in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, and you can tell by its all-lowercase name that it’s a classy, laid-back kind of place. Actually, suido café is an offshoot of Sumeshiya, an exclusive sushi restaurant that takes customers by reservation only.

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Sumeshiya doesn’t open until six in the evening, however. While this kind of operating schedule was the norm for upscale restaurants in Japan for several generations, the recent economic crunch has convinced many eateries to look for new revenue sources, often by serving a simplified or alternate menu during the afternoon. This is likely how suido café, which operates during the afternoon in the same building as Sumeshiya, came about.

Aside from a variety of beverages and desserts, the café also serves curry. Although curry is typically thought of as a cheap, filling meal for hungry students and athletes in Japan, in recent years there’s been a boom in cafés offering it in slightly dressed up form. It’s not so far removed from fancy restaurants in the US also serving a tasty, $10 hamburger for those patrons who want to enjoy a little ambiance with their meal, but don’t feel confident enough to order anything with a French name.

When eating Japanese-style curry, you usually pick a single variety, which is then served in the accepted half-moon style we discussed above.

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This presented a bit of a conundrum for the suido café, though, as their current lunch special is three kinds of curry served on the same plate. The three varieties are all from Otsuka Foods Bon Curry line. Since going on sale in 1968, Bon Curry has been an evergreen hit. Of course, people’s tastes change over time, and the Bon Curry lineup would eventually be expanded to include Bon Curry Gold and Bon Curry Neo.

▼ From left to right: Bon Curry regular, Gold, and Neo

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As a treat for longtime Bon Curry fans, suido café decided to serve them all together for one of their weekly lunch specials this month. But how to present this unorthodox offering without the three flavors running together and ruining its very reason for existing?

Simple: place the curry in three separate sections at the edges of the plate, leaving a vaguely triangle-shaped cluster of white rice in the center.

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Except, as some sharp-eyed, hungry, and/or lonely Internet users noticed, having one portion of curry slightly larger than the others creates a surprising image.

▼ Huh? What’s so weird?

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▼ And?

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▼ ….

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▼ …!

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Aaand now we can’t see it as anything else.

suido café will be serving the Underwear Curry (real name: Bon Curry Lunch) for 600 yen (US$6) only until October 13, so if you’re keen to try it but bothered by eating what appears to be a pair of jockey shorts, start scrubbing your memories now.

Or you could always try a mental substitution technique.

▼ Hmm…is this getting better, or worse?

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Restaurant information:
suido café
Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Suido, 2-6-6-
東京都文京区水道2-6-6
Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Tea time 1:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Open every day

Sources: suido café, Jin, Nico Video
Top image: suido café
Insert images: Sumeshiya, Coco Ichibanya, suido café, Amazing Socks, Aliexpress