Second Chance: Kuroge wagyu (Japanese black beef) chokotto beef curry from Sanda-ya Souhonke

This time with the correct amount of properly cooked rice!

Category: Store Bought (From Japan)

Flavor:  6 out of 10

Spice: 1 out of 10

The other night I got home from work kind of late and I wasn't very hungry. I did want to have a little something for dinner though, and I didn't feel like cooking.  There were not many choices and so I realized it was the perfect time to give the chokotto curry a second chance!  I had a little bit of rice made (properly this time) from the other day so I heated it up, put the curry into some boiling water, and 5 minutes later I was tasting kuroge wagyu (Japanese black beef) chokotto beef curry for the second time - but trying to keep an open mind as if it was my first time. 

My initial reaction was "Mmmmm, this is quite nice". A very different reaction, but this time I was eating this curry under the proper conditions.  I wasn't very hungry and only wanted a small portion and this time it turned out it was the perfect amount.  

There still wasn't a lot of beef, but it seemed like a little more. Rather, the beef was cut into smaller pieces, so while it may have been the same amount I felt less cheated. I would have liked more meat and more vegetables, but it wasn't such a big deal since I wasn't very hungry.  This time everything just seemed acceptable.  It still had absolutely no spice to it but the flavor was nice.  

I think this is great for when you want a small meal, don't want to put any effort into it, and don't really care for something really delicious.  Last time I used a scale of 1-5, but I've been using 1-10 in later reviews so this time it gets a 6 out of 10.  An upgrade from the previous review, but still not among the kings of curry.

Kuroge wagyu (Japanese black beef) chokotto beef curry from Sanda-ya Souhonke

Category: Store Bought (From Japan)

Flavor:  2.5 out of 5

Spice: 1 out of 10 

***  I need to make a note before this review.  I'm out-of-town for work right now and I don't have a rice cooker with me. What I do have is a small plastic thing which allows you to make rice in a microwave. This was the first time I used it and I didn't use enough water so the rice was undercooked which definitely made a negative impression with this curry.  I'll be reviewing this curry another time to give it a chance at a better rating since terrible rice is a big deal ***

This is what I will be making rice with for the next 4 months.

The name of this curry means "a small portion of beef curry".  Chokotto is right, but they should have named it Chokotto-oishii because that's what it is.  It wasn't bad, but at the same time it wasn't good.  It was just a very small portion of curry with no distinct flavor or anything to set it apart from other currys. 

When they say the portion is small that is an understatement. For Japan - maybe it's a small portion, but for the United States this is almost a small portion and I should have made both of the packets.  I usually consider American portions to be too big and feel that Japanese-sized portions are the right size most of the time. So when I think a portion is too small it's definitely small. Unless you're not very hungry or you're on a very strict diet this really isn't enough to satisfy you. 

Along with the small size there was literally one piece of beef in the entire thing.  One piece!  That's it?  I guess you have to put at least one piece in there to call it beef curry but come on Sanda-ya Souhonke, you can do better than that.  To add to the disappointment of the single piece of beef, there wasn't much flavor. There was no more spice to this curry than to a cup of water.  I've had mild curry before that was spicy compared to this. 

Now, I happen to enjoy fairly spicy curry so I at least like a little spice even when it's mild. To me a total lack of any spice means it's essentially bland and just made to not be offensive to anyone.  When you make any product, curry included, so that it's for "everyone" you end up with a product that's actually not for anyone. Yes, it was a little sweet, but even that flavor wasn't strong enough for this curry to have any real flavor to it. Be bold and put some flavor - any flavor- in your curry!  Maybe I won't like it but at least I can't blame you for not even trying. 

Overall, this curry was not very satisfying.  It didn't fill me up, it wasn't delicious, and all it did was make me feel a bit disappointed. On the other hand it wasn't actually bad. The best part is that I didn't feel so bad about messing up the rice, because I wasn't wasting good curry on it.