Creating the King of Curries means we’re pretty much done cooking for the entire week.
Curry is one of Japan’s favorite comfort foods, and some home chefs say a great way to enhance its flavor is by mixing two different brands of roux in the same pot. But this got our reporter Ahiru Neko thinking – if a pair of curries are extra nice, why stop at just two?
Unable to find an answer to that question, over a month ago Ahiru Neko decided to go out and get a couple kinds of instant curry pouches…and by a couple, we mean 75.
Generally, there are two ways to make instant curry: heating it up in the microwave, or boiling the still-sealed pouch in a pot of water. Either way only takes a few minutes, but with 75 pouches to cook, it wasn’t until recently that Ahiru Neko could carve out enough space in his schedule to cook them all.
But when he finally finished cooking pouch #75, he gazed out at the landscape of his kingdom of curry while feeling a deep satisfaction in his heart and a pungent aroma in his nostrils.
The array wasn’t limited to just Japanese-style curry either, as Indian and southeast Asian versions were also represented. The entire spiciness spectrum was on display as well, with some of the curries being mild, kid-friendly flavors and others aimed at hardcore spice fiends.
But while he obviously felt a nearly irresistible temptation to just start eating right then and there, Ahiru Neko’s ultimate goal was, remember, to find the curry kingdom’s its one and true king by mixing all of them together.
Since Ahiru Neko’s cooking endeavors usually don’t involve recipes that serve more than six dozen people, he’d had to order a large pot from a restaurant supply store. One by one, he started pouring the individual curries into the container, while heating and stirring the ever-growing mixture.
Each time he added a new variety, it created a graduated color scheme until he gave it several stirs with the ladle.
Finally, after all the curries were mixed together, Ahiru Neko grabbed a plate of white rice and poured out a scoop of the King of Curries.
Though he’d been bracing himself for a bizarre-looking super-hybrid to emerge from the pot, Ahiru Neko was surprised to find that the King of Curries looked pretty ordinary, with the bright brown hue most common to Japanese curry.
But when it came time for the tasting (which fellow reporters Mr. Sato and P.K. Sanjun volunteered to help with, and also to split the leftovers), Ahiru Neko discovered that while mixing 75 types of curry didn’t change the visuals all that much, it had a huge impact on the flavor.
While instant curry in Japan is tasty enough, it’s really more of an “in a pinch” or “too lazy to cook” kind of meal. Sure, it tastes good, but it’s generally a simple, basic flavor without much in the way of complexity.
This King of Curries, though, is amazingly complex, with the initial flavor on the tongue transitioning to something else entirely by the time you get to the aftertaste. It’s all clearly curry, but mixing so many different companies’ takes on it shows just how much variety there can be to the dish, and the end result is, by Ahiru Neko’s standards, above and beyond what he’d expect from instant food, and tasted restaurant-quality.
Granted, there’s a pretty big price tag for our King of Curries, as all those instant curry packs came to a total of 22,800 yen (US$210). Then again, when you remember that this is enough curry for 75 meals, it’s actually pretty reasonable, so if you’re cooking for a big family that loves both curry and leftovers, the King of Curries will give you a taste you can’t get any other way.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he likes as many carrots in his curry as can fit in the pot.