Japanese Beef Curry

Food.

Japanese Beef Curry

I know what you are thinking, "curry" is Indian food, not Japanese.  The British introduced curry to Japan when India was under its administration in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.  Since its introduction to Japan, it has changed a lot and has become one of its most popular national dishes.

When we were in Japan, we smelled this delicious curry quite often, especially when in the major rail stations food areas.  We chose not to eat it because we wanted to stick with authentic Japanese foods.  Well, we should have done our research because we ended up missing out.  Only until we got to the airport outside of Tokyo did we have some of this savory stew.  I have been craving it since the first tasting at the end of July.

S&B Golden Japanese Curry Sauce Mix, seconds before the pot boiled over

I took the easy way to make this curry by purchasing a sauce mix.  Sure, making it yourself probably would turn out well, but I wanted to remember exactly how this tasted so I went right to a brand that was made in Japan.  S&B Golden Curry can be purchased at almost any Asian food mart or store.  We use to have a few located close to our house in northern VA, but in NC it isn't as easy to locate this product.  I went right to Amazon and purchased it as an add-on item for under $6. That means it is cheaper if you purchase something else over $25 on prime, you can add this to the order and receive two-day prime shipping. Shipping on smaller items like this by itself can often be more expensive than the actual item. Now that I made this savory meal, I wish I had purchased a few more boxes.

There is a recipe on the back of the box, but I feel like it was lost in translation.  Adapting the recipe to make it what we were craving was simple. 

Japanese Beef Curry

2-3 lbs of lean beef (or chicken, lamb, pork or shrimp)

2 large onions

3 whole carrots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

4 tbsp cooking oil

3 cups water

1 box S&B golden curry sauce mix

Cut the meat into cubes. Chop the two onions finely.  Stir-fry the meat and onions in the oil in a large skillet until the meat has been browned on the outside and the onions are lightly browned. Add the chopped carrots and the chopped celery; sauté for another few minutes.

Add the water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the meat and veggies are tender. Remove from the heat and add in half of the package of sauce mix. Stir until the mix has completely melted and put back on heat.  Simmer about 5 minutes, while continually stirring. Serve over rice or noodles.

Simmering Japanese Curry Mix

Honestly, the smell that was filling up my house from this curry was one that brought me right back to Japan.  This was a really simple recipe to figure out and adapt.  I honestly think it was harder to make the Japanese rice correctly.  Next time I make this recipe, I want to cut the beef up into smaller pieces.  It was still delicious, but they needed to be a bit more bite sized. 

Serve this easy, quick meal with some Sake or Shochu and you will be tasting a little bit of what  traditional Japanese home-style meal tastes like. 

Enjoy.

<3 mk

Japanese Meal Recreation - Japanese BBQ

Food.

Wagyu beef from Matsusake @ M restaurant

So in an attempt to eat as well as we did in Japan, I tried to recreate some of our favorite meals.  Japanese BBQ and Japanese Curry Beef were two dishes that I felt confident enough to make from all of the meals we ate while vacationing in Japan.  We've heard numerous stories on Japanese BBQ. Some say that it originated in Korea, but the Japanese perfected it.  We've only had the Japanese version of it and all we know is that it is indeed delicious.

Japanese beef is "Wagyu" and it is some of the best in the world. The Japanese treat their cattle well by feeding them beer and massaging them with shochu. Wagyu cattle are known for their extreme marbling and quality, which is why it is more expensive.  It is sold in the states and is usually referred to as Kobe or Wagyu, which is probably a misnomer is some cases.  "Kobe beef" simply means beef that has originated in Kobe, near Osaka.  "Wagyu" beef is simply Japanese beef.  There are several regions in Japan that produce excellent beef.   In particular, we had a meal with beef from the Matsusaka region.

We went to a few Japanese BBQ places, but we hit the jackpot when we went to M for Jeff’s birthday dinner.  They literally showed us a picture of the cow’s identification (nose print) and the farmer that raised it.  The meat was cooked right in front of us by the chef and was delicious.  Probably the best we have ever eaten.   Japanese BBQ usually involves the customer cooking the meat, but as a result of negative reviews from foreigners on a travel website, this restaurant cooks the meat for you if you're "gaijin" aka non-Japanese.

I wanted to recreate this style of meal at home, but couldn't get any Wagyu so we resorted to grass fed beef purchased from our local farmers market.

Japanese Beef Marinade

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp Mirin

2 Tbsp Sake

1 clove crushed garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

I marinated a skirt steak after cutting it into smaller pieces. After a few hours, I took the steak out of the marinated to be grilled.  We really tried to recreate the scene and used the electric griddle on the dining room table to cook right in front of us.  There were veggies and lettuce to eat with the steak.  If we were in Japan, there would be personalized table grills that would have hot coals added when you arrived at the restaurant. I think we were playing it safe using the electric griddler, but it would be a cool gift idea in the future...hint, hint.

Source

This was more similar to a Korean BBQ place with the lettuce and the toppings, but this girl did what she could with what she had available. My favorite was the seasoned leeks (ramps) I made as a side. 

Jeff and I broke out our new chopsticks and sake boxes for the meal. The boxes are placed under the small glasses and the Sake overflows into the box after the glass is full.  This way when you are finished with the glass, you pour the remainder from the box into the glass. We had never seen it done this way until this trip.  It was really nice to remember our journey and bring home some experiences from this trip of a lifetime.

As soon as I get my Japanese Curry Roux, I'll be making some of that as well. Mmm, I can smell it already!  

<3 mk

Japanese Food

Food.

Friendly chef and wait staff in 8 person bar/restaurant in Tokyo

When most Americans think of Japanese food, we think of "hibachi" or sushi.  I was really worried when we went to Japan that all I would encounter was sushi and foods that made me uncomfortable.  Jeff will eat pretty much anything, but I have some consistency issues.  I went thinking the worst and that was totally not the situation at all.  The food was AWESOME and in the most unusual of places!

Here are some of the most popular food and drink items we encountered that were really enjoyed.

Ramen

Delicious ramen from vendor at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

No, not the $0.25 packages that you ate in college, the real deal.  Delicious broth, fresh noodles, meats or fish, and some veggies = the best meal ever!  Slurping is totally welcomed and at one establishment they even offered us a bib. I had ramen at every opportunity that I could.

Feverishly slurping ramen from the Tsukiji fish market

Whether it was from a street vendor, a small nine person restaurant, or a vending machine, I wish I could recreate this at home, but I am going to leave it to the professionals in Japan.

Order ramen from vending machine and eat inside.  It's prepared inside.  Think Wawa.

Beef

The beef in Japan is referred to as Wagyu and it is some of the best in the world. The Japanese treat their cattle by feeding them beer and massaging them with shochu. The cattle are known for their marbling and quality, which is why it is more expensive.  It is sold in the states, but usually the region where it comes from names it, eg. Kobe beef comes from Kobe which is near Osaka. 

Extremely marbled massaged Japanese beef

We went to a few BBQ places, but we hit the jackpot when we went to M for Jeff’s birthday dinner.  They literally showed us a picture of the cow’s identification (nose print) and the farmer that raised it.  The meat was cooked right in front of us and was delicious.  Typically, the customer cooks it, but tourists are occasionally served by a chef.  Probably the best we have ever eaten. 

Sushi & Fish

Freshly caught food porn (tuna) at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

The fish was obviously fresh, but the main difference was the size.  It was larger pieces of fish that were placed delicately over the rice, aka nigiri. Another favorite was Una Don, which was broiled eel in a sweet sauce over rice. No matter what fish you had ordered, it was always fresh and delicious, except for maybe the fermented fish Jeff ordered. Not appealing at all. 

Octopus balls in Osaka

Octopus balls seemed to be a big hit, particularly in Osaka.  They're a small piece of octopus with breading on the outsides.  Jeff got some after a night of sake, but I didn't try them because it didn't feel like having that taste linger all night.

Japanese Beef Curry

I got a whiff of this stuff every time we walked thru the subway system and always wanted to try it, but there was never enough time.  Many of the major subway stations are elaborate underground shopping/food areas, nothing like what we have in the states.  I was happy when we were in the airport lounge waiting for our flight home and they were serving it as a meal item that day.  Some people are not curry fans, but the smell was irresistible and so was the Japanese beef curry.  Served with some rice, my mouth is watering.  I will be trying to make this recipe as soon as I can get my hand on the secret ingredient,  Japanese curry roux.  P.S. they sell it on amazon - of course they do!

Donburi & Tendon

No, not the ones in your legs.  It’s a rice or noodle (udon) bowl with tempura on top.  Meats, fish (prawn), and veggies that are in a light, flaky, fried crust and then dipped into a salty broth.  This was another favorite of ours on the trip.  I was surprised that my favorites were pumpkin and little green peppers (nori).  It all was delicious, I mean, how can you go wrong with something fried?

Pickles/Pickled Cucumber

I know, not what you expected.  I have had a love affair with pickles my entire life so when they were a popular snack item at almost every place we stopped, I was in heaven.   It was really hot when we visited so we often stopped and got a beer and a snack a few times during the day.  Fresh pickles were almost always on the menu.  Shocker, right?

Sake & Shochu

Shochu in grocery store

Kanpai! If you think about an adult beverage from Japan, many people think of Sake.  Jeff and I went to Japan thinking we would be drinking Sake the entire time, but in reality the popularity of the drink has been declining for decades.  We took a sake tasting class while there and we really learned about the process to making real authentic sake.   The main thing we took away from the class was that sake got a bad wrap because it was being made with cheap rice, in mass quantities and made in an unauthentic manner, resulting is really sweet sake.  There are breweries making it the real way and the result is delicious. You need to look for specific labels, but the price is obviously more expensive when purchased in the the US.

So, instead of drinking sake as our main adult bev, we discover Shochu. This drink is a distilled alcohol which is somewhere between wine and vodka in alcohol levels and it is distilled from many different ingredients; barley, sweet potatoes, rice, sugar, buckwheat or chestnuts.  It is served straight up, with water, in cocktail form, or on the rocks as we liked best. It can be up to 25% alcohol, so watch out! We have been searching to purchase this in stores at home, but we ended up purchasing it online.

Barley Tea

Japanese barley tea

Every time you sit down, they offer you tea, it can be hot but it's usually cold.  I know that you are probably thinking green tea and that was what I thought as well, but it wasn’t.  This stuff is delicious, with a slightly roasted, sweet flavor.  I preferred it cold.  Every time we sat down or stood up to eat, that was what we got, not water.  I enjoyed it so much that I ordered it (on amazon) as soon as we got home.  Its easy to brew and delicious over ice. You should try it out.

I hope you read this and realize the huge variety of food choices there are when visiting Japan.  This trip really made us want to try to bring back some of these delicious foods and beverages with us. Japan really is a great place to visit...and the food happens to be amazing too!

<3 mk