Japanese Curry

I always talk about food with my Japanese students and curry is never out of the topic. I've always wondered if the curry we have in the Philippines taste similar to that in Japan. The curry I know is what my father cooks best. We use native chicken, coconut milk and turmeric, different from the curry I ate in the cafeteria back in college which definitely used instant curry mix.

Two weeks before Christmas, my student, Mitsuko-san, said she sent a package for my cats. She told me she sent a "house" for my cats. When the package arrived, I was surprised to see not only the strawberry house. Included in the package were a stamp, a Christmas card and.. and.. a box of Japanese curry mix with instructions on how to use it in English that Mitsuko-san herself wrote!!!!

We had native chicken from my hometown and I decided to use it to cook Japanese curry.

Here are the ingredients.

1/2 kg chicken

1 carrot, cubed

1 large potato, cubed

onion. sliced

oil

curry cubes

salt

First, pan-fry the carrots and potatoes until brown then set aside. Next, saute the chicken with the sliced onions until the chicken's skin turns brown. Add  a little water and let it simmer until chicken is tender.

When the chicken is tender, add the instant curry cubes. I used two cubes in this dish. Here's how the curry cubes look like.

You can add more water depending on the consistency of the curry that you want. Add salt to taste. Mine has little water in it. Lastly, add the potatoes and carrots. Simmer for 2 minutes and that's it. I hate the taste of overcooked carrots so I'm always careful not to overcook them.

And the taste? Yummy! Japanese curry tastes like the curry we have here. The color seems different though. The curry in the Philippines would normally be yellow while that in Japan is brown.