Eggplant and ripe tomato curry

Full of delicious veggies!

Spice: 1 out of 10

Rating: 9 out of 10

Today I thought I would tell you about the greatest vegetarian curry I've ever had - Eggplant and ripe tomato curry. To be fair - most curry has meat in it so I can't say that I've eaten a ton of vegetarian curry.  However, this curry can go up against any protein-filled curry any day.

If you don't like eggplant, you probably won't like this curry.  This is yet another curry sent from Japan and I picked it based on the picture. I love eggplant but had never had it in curry before so I was intrigued.

As soon as I opened the pouch I knew it was a good choice.  A great aroma filled the air immediately and as you've read here before, this usually means a tasty curry!!  It came as no surprise that not only did it smell really nice, but it tasted just as good, if not slightly better.

This curry isn't spicy at all. It was just about the mildest curry you can get without it turning into water.  Even though I'm a fan of relatively spicy curry I didn't mind that this one was as mild as it gets.  It's very creamy and sweet which doesn't lend itself to a lot of spiciness.

It seems to me that whenever a curry is creamy it is also sweet.  Perhaps there is a spicy and creamy curry out there, but I can't think of one off the top of my head. Maybe it's been done and wasn't a good combination.  All I know is that sweet and creamy makes for a wonderful combination in a Japanese curry.

The vegetables were all cooked really well.  They practically melt in your mouth and I don't mean just the eggplant.  Even the potato almost melts in your mouth!  Creamy curry with vegetables that almost melt is like a spoonful of heaven. 

This is without a doubt the best vegetarian curry I've had so far.

Kitano Selection's Premium Curry

You can tell it's premium because of the shiny box

Spice: 2
Rating: 8.5

This is your standard curry pouch that you buy in the store (in Japan) and heat up in boiling water for a few minutes.  Thanks to my awesome family in Japan I'm actually able to get ahold of many of these curries which you cannot buy in the States.

This is another instance of choosing a curry based solely on the box. This time I could only read "Kitano Selection" on the box, but I was able to find out that this is called 'Premium Curry' thanks to my personal translator (wife). I don't know what makes this premium other than it being in a fancy looking box - which was the reason I ate it. I was in the mood for something a little more 'upscale'. ^_~

When I open the pouch I always try and smell the curry before I pour it over rice. Sometimes the smell is very obvious - but that seems to happen  most often with the spicier curry. If I can't immediately smell it I lean in. This curry happened to smell absolutely GREAT.  I knew it was going to be good right away - and I was right.  I poured it over rice and thought that it also looked really tasty.  It has a dark color similar to a 'black curry' I ate in Tokyo.  I believe that curry was called "classic curry" or something along those lines and the waiter told us that this is the way curry was made in Japan before the 1950's.  The black color comes from squid ink if I remember correctly, and this also adds a rich flavor.

Perhaps this premium curry contains squid ink?  I don't know because I can't read the label.  I also don't know for sure, but I believe the meat in this curry is beef.   What I do know is that this curry is delicious and is creamy in the best way and has a very deep rich flavor.

It's not spicy at all and tastes very rich and creamy.  It feels 'heavy' and filled me up very well. The portion size was perfect - any more and I would have been stuffed.  I would eat any quantity of this curry that was given to me because it tastes so good, so I'm glad it wasn't so large that I finished eating and felt stuffed afterwards.

If you're looking for a nice thick, creamy, and satisfying curry dinner I highly recommend you give Kitano Selection's Premium Curry a try.  It's a classic flavor that will not disappoint and will leave you feeling satisfied and content. 

Tatsuya Kawagoe Curry

Restaurant Website (In Japanese - I don't see an English version)

Spice:  2 out of 10
Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Here is another instance of picking a curry simply by the box.  I could tell that this curry was from a restaurant as the map of its location is on the back of the box. I also assumed the man on the front is the chef/owner of said restaurant.  The only roman characters on the box said "Tatsuya Kawagoe" which I decided was either the name of the restaurant, the chef's name, or the name of the brand.

I liked that they put a happy stick figure on the box and decided the reason you see the chef's watch in the picture is because it's always CURRY TIME!!  This is how I decided to try Tatsuya Kawagoe curry one night knowing nothing about what ingredients or flavors to expect. I decided it would be more fun to taste it 'blind' and see if what I think of it matches up with reality afterwards.

Doesn't look great, but tastes awesome!

When I first poured this curry out of it's pouch I thought that it didn't look very nice, but that it smelled amazing. The smell was good enough to offset the poor presentation, especially because I don't really expect the visual presentation of a pre-made curry to be phenomenal.  I leaned in for a closer smell - it has a sort of sweet tomato smell to it.

Then I sat down to eat and was pleased to find that it tasted more like it smelled than how it looked! The pieces of potato and carrots that were in it were nice and big which I always appreciate. The potatoes were soft like butter but not overdone to the point where they just turn into mush with your spoon.  I don't notice any meat in this curry but I don't care because it tastes great.

This curry is very sweet but I do notice some spice in it. However, it's not obvious that it's in there and I only noticed it because I was looking (tasting?) for it. It's there and it's the balance that pulls this curry together, but it is subtle and I doubt I would have noticed it if I hadn't really been paying attention. 

Even though it's working it doesn't quite taste like a Japanese curry.  As I give it some thought I think it must have some basil or oregano in it. This curry, I decided, has a distinct Italian flavor to it and it tastes like a mix between Japanese curry and an Italian risotto.  I would have given this an 8 out of 10, but I decided to take half a point away simply because it tasted as much like a risotto as it did a curry.  It's not a bad thing, but it's not a distinct "I want curry!!" flavor.

I loved the design of the box so I decided to make my own!

After writing the words above it was time to look into this curry/chef.  It turns out that Tatsuya Kawagoe is both the name of the chef and his restaurant. He's a Celebrity chef in Japan and the cuisine that he's known for is... Italian!  I guess my tastebuds actually do know a few things! That explains why this tastes like a mix between Japanese and Italian cuisines and had I known that before eating it I might have made a side of garlic bread :p  Gotta love the fusion curry.