The Ultimate Japanese Comfort Food

Despite all the misconceptions Singaporeans have about Japanese Curry being some sweet gooey stuff, it is still the ultimate Japanese comfort food. Nope, not because I said so, because millions of Japanese swears by it. For those of you that have watched the Pixar animation Ratatouille, it should be pretty clear that comfort food is never a measure of the price or luxurious ingredients but something that is closer to the heart. For millions of Japanese, curry (kare) is a dish that they grew up with and something that reminded them of mama’s cooking - yup not sushi or ramen. It is like Shark’s fin or abalone doesn’t remind me of my mum’s cooking, but simple food like sweet potato porridge and braised pork belly resonates deep in the heart. I am sure you have your own “humble” comfort food but I digress.

The ingredients may be humble vegetables like potato and carrots, but the right combination of ingredients and spices results in a delicious hearty dish that you have to eat with an open mind to understand why millions of Japanese consider it one of their favorite food. It is also a dish that is a melting pot of culinary cultures. Curry, we all know is Indian in origin, method of cooking is more French and Western than anything Japanese, even fried pork cutlets are considered a Western inspiration and, of course along the way Japanese added their own touch to the combination of this wonderfully hearty dish.

I am not saying that Japanese curry will blow your mind and I think some people came with that expectation to be left disappointed. It is like porridge, it can be very well done and a great comfort food but it is never going to be “blow you out of the water” kind of food. It is no foie gras or truffle really. Honestly, it is curry in the end albeit different from its Indian cousin. What we are certain is that many Singaporeans, while having had instant curry before at some point in their life,  never had Japanese curry done from scratch. What we can only hope is that we can start changing some impressions on Japanese curry one customer at a time. Like it or not (taste of our curry vs instant) doesn’t really matter since taste preference is really subjective (with no right or wrong) but at least we do some “justice” to our favorite comfort food and spread some knowledge to the rich Singapore food scene.

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 11:50 amand is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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