Japanese curry is now as simple as boiling pasta in a pot!

Our reporter K. Masami was recently browsing inside a souvenir shop in Hyogo Prefecture when a curious item called “Curry Pasta” caught her eye.

Made by Moriguchi Seifun Seimen, a famous manufacturer of dried noodles in Tatsuno City, Hyogo Prefecture, this was a local product she’d never seen before, and when she picked it up, a staff member approached her and said, “This is so delicious! Just cook it and sprinkle some salt on it and it’s so good, I highly recommend it!”

The staff member’s earnest enthusiasm instantly won her over, so she wasted no time in taking it to the register, paying 486 yen (US$3.10) for the 160-gram (5.6-ounce) bag of dried pasta. When she took it home and did some research on the product, she found that the Curry Pasta was created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of another famous product made by the company —  Curry Udon.

Moriguchi Seifun Seimen makes its products in small lots, and concentrates on both serious, traditional noodles and fun, creative versions suggested by company employees.

▼ This pasta, made only with durum flour, curry powder, and salt, sits on the fun side of things.

Upon opening the bag of pasta, you can smell the strong and distinctive aroma of curry. It’s so strong and familiar that when you bring your nose close to the pasta and close your eyes, it’s like you’re sniffing a bowl of Japanese curry rice.

The pasta doesn’t come with any sauce, as it’s said to be delicious enough to eat on its own, but Masami decided to follow online suggestions to add a cream-based sauce on the side.

▼ After cooking the pasta in boiling water for five minutes, it was ready to eat.

Once it was cooked, the pasta had softened up considerably, but it still had a wonderful curry aroma.

It was chewy with just the right amount of bite, and when she slurped up her first mouthful, she found the pasta was full of flavour, with a salty finish that suggested she didn’t need to add any salt to it at all. She couldn’t quite believe what she was eating, because though these looked like pasta noodles, it tasted like…Japanese curry!

▼ The curry was spicy with a nice kick, and the cream sauce helped to soften the zing.

Having the sauce on the side is a great way to enjoy the pasta, as you get to mix in as much or as little as you want to adjust the spice levels to your liking.

▼ When you mix it all in with the cream sauce, it gives you the texture of a roux that makes you feel like you’re eating a Japanese curry.

After trying the Curry Pasta, Masami understood why people online, and the staff member at the store, had given it such rave reviews. It truly was a delicious pasta, and though she was tempted to add a curry sauce to it, she’s glad she went with the cream sauce, as it allowed the flavour of the curry in the pasta to sing out rather than be buried under a curry roux.

Whichever way you choose to enjoy it, it’s a fun new way to get our Japanese curry fix, and now we can’t wait to pair it with cheesecake, a secret killer ingredient that makes curry taste out of this world.

Related: Moriguchi Seifun Seimen Curry Pasta
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