10 November 2010

Special International Supermarkets of Mystery Edition: Japanese Packet Curry Sauce

We learn that packet Japanese curry sauce has the stamp of approval from tops old Japanese ladies. Being the Evel Knievels of processed foods that we are, we give it a try.



On our recent Japan trip we got a taste for Japanese curry. Somebody has to. It started with the above bowl of udon soup with curry. This was devoured for breakfast in a stand'n'slurp noodle bar on a train station platform in Osaka. Miss Chicken ordered it because it sounded goofy, but was it surprisingly tasty, simple and homely, a good cheap stodge filler, an almost guilty pleasure.



On the same trip we noticed packet curry sauce was popular with old ladies as we loitered around the supermarkets. And if packet curry is good enough for tops Japanese old ladies, then packet curry is good enough for us. So back in Sydney Miss Chicken picks up this packet for a couple of bucks. It's one of those things I've always either ignored or laughed at in Asian supermarkets, so it's a whole bunch of fun to give it a try.



Miss Chicken also picked up a 60 cent pack of long life udon noodles. I'm sure most Japanese ladies would be buying fresh ones...



The instructions say to boil the udon noodles for three minutes, but Miss Chicken cheats and pours hot kettle water them and leaves them for a few minutes with a bowl/lid on top. She then opens the wonderful curry in a packet: the curry sauce is in block form, snap off one segment per bowl. And don't mistake if for chocolate, or space food sticks.



Miss Chicken heats up the curry block in water, strains the udon to get the yukky starch water out, then adds sauce to the udon.



Add some token greenery and Hiroshi's your uncle: Japanese curry with udon. It's sure to get your kicked off Masterchef but as a cheap home snack, it's not too shabby. And given the fact that Japanese old ladies eat this, technically speaking, it's authentic Japanese food.

9 comments:

  1. Never seen the block cube version before! Cool! I always buy the packet version, just heat and add to rice or noodles. Lazy me. Also love the sauce mixture that is for the nice runny egg for Katsu-don. Mmmmmmm....I love the instant Jap stuff! They taste good to me.

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  2. Oh wow - the runny egg katsudon one sounds great, have to get us some of that!

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  3. I've picked up that same udon curry mix before, contemplated buying it, then put it back on the shelf. Now that I've seen it here, I'm grabbing some next time I come across it. Looks good enough to me.

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  4. At the very least it's a nice change to 2 minute noodles :-)

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  5. hmmmm looks so YUM! gona go and make this over the weekend i think!

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  6. There's a number of different Japanese packet curries (or roux, to give them their proper name) - I love Golden Curry (made by condiment maker S&B), which you can get from any good Korean or Japanese grocery, especially the WONDERFUL Tokyo Mart in Northbridge Shopping Plaza - Tetsuya shops there! Some Japanese people love Vermont curry but I find it a bit sweet. You can also make your own with Clive of India, garam masala, butter and flour - but don't forget the apple sauce, which makes it really kari-raisu (or kari-udon)! Yum!

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  7. Thanks a bunch Sunbad, we'll certainly take your advice and hit Northbridge for some Golden Curry, I'll tell Tetsuya you said hi!

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  8. IN Japan, We have powder type soup for curry-udon.
    http://www.higashimaru.co.jp/new_goods/10win/curry.html

    about 50yen per dish:-)

    Powder type soup for ordinary Udon is also available, we mix curry and udon soup for curry-udon, yes, this is the original curry-udon.

    You can see commonly these soups in the supermarkets. Udon soup is cheaper, ~20yen:-)
    http://www.higashimaru.co.jp/products/udonsoup.html

    So, we enjoy curry udon on the next day after we have curry with rice(^~^)

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  9. I agree with Sunbad. Golden curry is the brand I keep returning too. Tried Vermont as well but I too prefer golden and my choice would always be hot! Mild and medium versions are child's play!

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

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