Curry Rice On The Go

Today I decided to make some Japanese curry rice (kare raisu) at my office for lunch. For those of you not familiar with the dish, here's what it normally looks like:

As you can (kinda) see, it's not really anything like Indian curry, except it does use curry powder/garam masala. It's more like a thick stew with curry spices, apparently it's based on "English curry"... I could Google it to better inform myself, but I don't feel like it.

Normally kare raisu is made with potatoes, carrots, onions, some kind of meat, various spices and quite often something sweet like apple and/or honey. It's very popular in Japan and is eaten in restaurants and made at home; families and restaurants usually have their own secret recipes. Per the name, it's served with short-grain sticky rice, or sometimes over a big piece of fried pork (tonkatsu). And... sometimes over spaghetti... the Japanese have some interesting takes on Western food, but I'll talk about that some other time.


Anyway, Wegman's is currently running a clearance sale on a bunch of Asian items, one of which being instant curry. The original plan was to make some rice at home the night before and then just microwave it at work along with the curry. But since I did NOT do that last night, I remembered that Nishiki sells these little personal-size microwavable rice bowls and just bought one of those. After the fact I realized that it was now a completely conveinent, somewhat non-perishable meal... which is kinda awesome.

House brand curry & Nishiki instant rice... duh

I've had two kinds of this instant curry before, S&B and House. I prefer the S&B version to begin with though because they do NOT use MSG, where as House does. Also, the S&B version is microwavable in the bag, House's is not. You can also boil the bag, but it takes longer which kinda negates the idea of it being "instant".

It always looks like poop and it doesn't help that you have to squeeze it out of the bag like toothpaste

Like I said, the best part is that it's super-fast to prepare. The curry takes a little over a minute and the rice takes 90 seconds.

I think I read somewhere that you're not supposed to "mix" the two when serving, but rather they should be side-by-side on a plate so that you can "dip" spoonfuls of rice into the curry. However, it's all going to end up in the same place (my pie-hole), and I didn't want to get another dish dirty.

I tried my best to keep them separate anyway

Besides looking extra shiny and microwaved, the rice seemed to taste to OK. However, I would definitely not suggest using it for sushi rice like the package says. The curry also tasted fine. In general, curry is one of those things that tastes better after it's let to sit for awhile, so if you think about it, this pre-packaged version should taste extra delicious since it's been on a shelf for several months. Also, I imagine all of the spices and preservatives in it cover up any lack of freshness or "homemade taste": science = flavor!

All in all, for under $4.00 total, it was pretty good. Fresh-made would definitely make it better, so maybe next time I'll just bring my rice cooker to the office. The only thing I really don't like about eating curry with MSG is that it leaves a weird after taste... you know, like you just ate some horrible cancer-inducing artificial flavor enhancer. So if you do go the instant curry route, try to find the S&B brand; in addition to not having MSG, I think it just tastes better overall.

Oh yeah, one more thing. All these curries usually come in 3 or more variations of spiciness: mild, medium and hot. Personally, I love spicy food and was looking forward to some heat. However, I've tried all variations and even the "extra hot" ones aren't hot, just spicy. Then again I know people that think the mild salsa at Chipotle is too spicy, so I guess it's different for everyone.