Pork curry, 800yen.
This curry place was established in 1924. The homepage says no wheat flour added(hence the soup-like texture), 26 different kinds of spice are pan-fried for 1 hour, and vegetables and meat are stewed for a long time to make the curry. Indeed there is a distinctive bitter taste which is quite addictive. Lunch comes with corn cream soup which is always tongue-burningly hot. Very busy at lunch time so expect to share tables with strangers.
Left: Beef curry, 1200yen. When I had the pork curry last time, the curry sauce was not quite enough to finish all the rice so I ordered a larger portion of the sauce this time for an extra 300yen…and it is too much.
Right: Hayashi rice, 1100yen. A bit sweet but good too.
Prawn curry, 1200yen. Grilled apple(only available after 2pm) – to my disappointment, it is cold! It is soaked in syrup but is still very very sour.
スマトラカレー共栄堂 (Kyoueidoo)
Add: B1, 1-6 Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-3291-1475
Yatta! This is the blog I’ve been looking for! After so many occasions in Tokyo going out for something to eat and not being able to find a really good place, this is a godsend! (Wednesday night is ‘new restaurant night’, a bit late now – but all good for next weeks installment!)
Oh…the grilled apple probably was prepared the earlier before (or it’s really served cold?)
Haha the Japanese curry goes way back, I wonder when it’s started?
Tokyo Story>
I hope you find the info here useful. It is so true that there are many bad restaurants in Tokyo too!
Freda>
I guess the apple in this place is supposed to serve cold; I just somehow thought that “grilled apple” must be hot. ^^;;
From Wikipedia:
“Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1869 – 1913), at a time when India was under the administration of the British. Because of that, curry in Japan is categorized as a Western dish instead of an Asian dish.”
Strange reason!!
Which curry (beef, pork, prawn, etc.) would you recommend? Thanks.
I think I like the beef, but there is not that much meat chunks in the curry. btw I didn’t tried the chicken and the beef tongue.
Yeah that make sense that curry is considered youshoku, since English brought that from Indian to Japan…hence the ‘western’ first impression?
I was reading this early 1930s Japanese mystery fiction and a soldier mentioned eating curry rice from the cafeteria of a Japanese military station at Harbin, I was like “oh, so Japanese~~” ^^:;
Haha, they call those curry with thick texture, sweet taste(sometimes butter-taste too) “European curry”(欧風カレー) in Japan. Actually corn soup with curry is also a strange combination if you think about it. ^^;;