A Couple New Curries at CoCoIchi

Curry is my favorite food in Japan, hands down. In the past four days, I've had it three times, and I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself with another plate of the spicy stuff in front of me by the end of the weekend. The best restaurant for curry here is a chain called CoCoIchibanya. It's certainly the most common, too, found somewhere in pretty much any city worth its spice. Curry is available in family restaurants and even Shakey's Pizza. You can find it in convenience stores and packets of curry and instant curry (like cup ramen noodles) are easy to find. There are a few other chains, and someday I'll try them. Go Go Curry (with the gorilla in the logo) in Akihabara always seems to have a line on Sundays. But almost every restaurant there has a line on Sundays, and the CoCoIchi in the area is a bit out of the way.

Anyway, ordering curry is easy at CoCoIchi. You can have any number of toppings, change the level of spice, the amount of rice, and the type of curry. The menu features recommended mixes, one of which has been a triple-chicken curry.

 There's a fried chicken cutlet on the right, fried chicken pieces on the left (natural, not processed like McDonalds nuggets), and stewed chicken in the sauce. These are all good on their own, and combined this dish packs a lot of calories, but served this way they give me the bottle of sauce you see in the background. It's similar to the miso sauce you could use with misokatsu or kushikatsu. It's expensive and unhealthy due to the size, but it is a great, filling meal.

Sometimes you can get something truly unique and limited (remember my spoon?). Right now, they're offering an Indian-style curry. They season the rice and the curry sauce is different. It still has the same creamy style that you find with the regular Japanese curry, but they add Indian curry seasonings. You can see the small bowl of lightly pickled chopped vegetables they include as a topping. I really enjoyed this curry and I'll have to have it again soon!