43 Comments
There’s a lot of variety tocurry ricein Japan. It can be spicy or mild, and toppings can include everything from healthy veggies to hearty slabs of deep-fried pork.
But for all its variations, there’s one thing that’s remarkably consistent about curry rice in Japan:it’s almost always served with all of the roux on only one half of the plate, and the rice on the other. There might be some overlap between the two sections, but you can be sure that just about every time you order curry rice in a restaurant, a wide section of the white rice is going to be uncovered.
This presentation raises the question, should you thoroughly mix all of the rice and roux together before you start eating, or should you leave them separate, taking individual bites of roux or rice, or maybe mixing no more than a single mouthful of the two at a time as you eat?To look for an answer, Japanese Internet portal Kurufa polled 500 of its users (339 men and 161 women), and also asked them why they choose to mix or not to mix.
When the votes were added up, the mixers made up the majority. Overall,two-thirds of the respondents said they don’t mix their roux and rice before they start eating, with 32.8 percent saying they do mix(shockingly, 3 survey participants, representing 0.6 percent of the pool, said they don’t eat curry rice at all).Mixing proved to be a little more popular among men than women, with 36.2 percent of male respondents choosing to mix versus just 26.3 percent of women.
Image: SoraNews24
When asked the reason for their mixing philosophy,non-mixers primarily pointed to the individual appeals of the roux’s spice and the rice’s starchy sweetness. By leaving the two unmixed, they can alternate between focusing on one of the other, and mixing small amount as they eat allows them to continually adjust the flavor balance to whatever they’re craving at that exact moment. Some also mentioned that theydon’t like the way the rice and roux look when mixed together, especially how it leaves the portion of the plate that’s revealed as they eat looking streaked and messy.
However,the pro-mixing camp makes some good points as well. In contrast to the continually variable taste that comes from not mixing, mixing the rice and roux together helps coat every single grain of rice with roux, so that every bite really tastes like “curry rice,” not just curryorrice.Mixing also makes for a more satisfying conclusion to the meal, pro-mixers say, by eliminating the risk of running out of either rice or roux first. There’s no need to worry about evenly pacing yourself between eating the two ingredients if you pre-mix, ensuring that you’ll get both curry and rice in the final firing of your taste receptors.
It’s worth bearing in mind that while Japan has a lot of subtle etiquette rules, whether to mix curry roux and rice is a debate that falls outside the bounds of table manners, and either way is socially acceptable. You can even take a third option of starting off by eating them non-mixed, then stirring the rice and roux together half-way through your meal, allowing you to enjoy the best of both schools of thought.
Source:KurufaviaYahoo! Japan NewsviaOtakomu
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- https://soranews24.com/2023/09/25/curry-rice-to-mix-or-not-to-mix-that-is-the-question-survey-attempts-to-answer/
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43 Comments
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sakurasuki
Here's a thought, there should be a menu for mix curry. So by the time it's being served, customer already got it in mixed form.
-7(+1/-8)
englisc aspyrgend
Think I will stick to proper Indian food from an Indian restaurant. If I have a “curry” it should it look anything like that. That looks more like a not very good beef stew with rice.
-3(+5/-8)
wallace
I eat the curry with the rice.
-1(+3/-4)
Elvis is here
This presentation raises the question, should you thoroughly mix all of the rice and roux together before you start eating, or should you leave them separate,
Interesting. I've not gotten to this level of philosophical thought before.
But I'll leave you with this one lingering thought; If plain curry and rice was meant to be mixed, would it not be called 混ぜカレー?
https://housefoods.jp/recipe/rcp_00019786.html
-2(+2/-4)
Strangerland
When the votes were added up, the mixers made up the majority.
The article says, following the sentence below that directly contradicts the one above:
Overall,two-thirds of the respondents said they don’t mix their roux and rice before they start eating, with 32.8 percent saying they do mix(shockingly, 3 survey participants, representing 0.6 percent of the pool, said they don’t eat curry rice at all).
3(+3/-0)
Strangerland
I'm a mixer. I've heard it's considered childish, and how kids eat their curry.
3(+4/-1)
wallace
I don't mix the curry and rice before eating.
2(+5/-3)
Moonraker
You can even take a third option of starting off by eating them non-mixed, then stirring the rice and roux together half-way through your meal
Or a fourth of mixing at the beginning, eating half and then separating out the rice and curry for the second half.
-1(+1/-2)
falseflagsteve
That curry looks yucky
-5(+4/-9)
falseflagsteve
Wallace
Nor do i mate. If I want mixed I’ll have a nice biryani, yummy. Mutton is my favourite you see.
-11(+1/-12)
Paustovsky
I once went to a restaurant where the chef insisted on serving the fish on really small portions of rice so I asked for a bowl and waited for a few more of these offerings to arrive before putting them in the bowl and giving them a good old mix.
I couldn't tell if the look of sheer amazement from the chef was at my ingenuity or me asking for some ketchup as the pièce de résistance.
-1(+3/-4)
wallace
ffs
Biryani is not a curry.
11(+11/-0)
Strangerland
Nor do i mate. If I want mixed I’ll have a nice biryani
And what do you mix the Biryani with?
6(+6/-0)
Elvis is here
I usually get a smidgen of veg curry to go with my chicken biriyani. It lubes it up nicely.
1(+3/-2)
Strangerland
Am I the only one for whom these two sentences don't concatenate?
Nope, see my first post in this thread.
3(+4/-1)
YeahRight
Whenever someone asks me about mixing before eating, I ask them if they eat their meat sauce to the side of their spaghetti. Of course, curry and rice, sauce and spaghetti should be mixed before eating. It's the only way to get the full flavor.
-2(+1/-3)
wallace
People should eat their curry and rice in whatever way they care to.
2(+4/-2)
commanteer
Don't mix. I eat from the border between the two, so I get just as much rice as I want with each bite. I try to avoid eating all the rice - just empty calories.
Think I will stick to proper Indian food from an Indian restaurant.
Apples and oranges. One can enjoy both - they are not mutually exclusive.
-2(+1/-3)
yipyip
I was specifically told by a curry chef not to mix.
-2(+3/-5)
Strangerland
Apples and oranges. One can enjoy both - they are not mutually exclusive.
I thoroughly enjoy them both. I enjoy Indian curries for their great, wild, rich flavors, and Japanese curry rice as warm, filling comfort food.
4(+5/-1)
Elvis is here
Thai curries are nice.
3(+5/-2)
bass4funk
I was specifically told by a curry chef not to mix.
I think so.
Nor do i mate. If I want mixed I’ll have a nice biryani, yummy. Mutton is my favourite you see.
Yum!
-6(+0/-6)
Strangerland
Thai curries are nice.
Yes! I love them as well. Maybe the most.
7(+8/-1)
commanteer
Curry is a interesting thing to define - as in not easy. When you think of it Coca-Cola is curry flavored soda, for example.
-2(+1/-3)
kintsugi
I like Indian and Thai curries and Japanese if not from a packet with too much oil. Prefer rice and curry to be separate. Always eat them with a spoon never with Hashi.
5(+5/-0)
Elvis is here
Spicy gravied dishes have been a mainstay of South Asian cookery since antiquity
3(+5/-2)
Elvis is here
Mapo for the immediate "sichuan" spice kick, but almost exclusively in a dedicated restaurant
I completely agree sir. By the by, I would be interested to know of such a fine establishment in the Tokyo area, preferable in the western sector.
0(+3/-3)
kintsugi
Elvis is here
Mapo for the immediate "sichuan" spice kick, but almost exclusively in a dedicated restaurant
I completely agree sir. By the by, I would be interested to know of such a fine establishment in the Tokyo area, preferable in the western sector.
That's why God invented Google.
4(+4/-0)
garypen
Separate in the bowl. Mixed on the spoon. That's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh.
3(+4/-1)
piskian
This isn't curried meat in the proper sense,so it makes no difference.
-3(+0/-3)
virusrex
If anything the value of the survey comes from the different reasons the people on either side express, for those that like it one way or the other it has no importance how many or how few do it in the same way, nor that anybody says you should like it better if you eat it differently.
What could be important is to consider the reasons why people like to eat Curry in a certain way, for those without a specially strong preference that may be enough to shift it.
0(+1/-1)
ClippetyClop
There’s a lot of variety tocurry ricein Japan.
There is a lot of variety to curry, just not in Japan. A fundamental unawareness of spice.
I often make my own curry pastes and am considered to be on a level somewhere just below Advanced God by those who sample it.
2(+3/-1)
CuteUsagi
Japanese rice in plain form is tasteless.
I prefer French bread or nan with my own curries or real curry, not Japanese thick mud curry.
-7(+1/-8)
commanteer
Funny how some people are so sad that they downvote somebody expressing a food preference they don't like. smh
-4(+2/-6)
Dr.Cajetan Coelho
For centuries Coconut Curry Rice has been the staple food of the Konkani speaking people of Goa in coastal Western India. Locally grown coconuts, spices, river or Arabian sea fish, drum sticks, prawns, crabs, squids, king fish, mackerel, sardine, shark, Bombay Duck - you find it all at Kamlabai, Ritz Classic, Bhosle, Kokni Kanteen, and at several hotspots in Margao, Vasco, Panjim, Mapusa and all along the Goa sea front.
-1(+3/-4)
wallace
Coconut cream takes curries to another world. Or Greek-style yoghurt.
1(+3/-2)
big john
Why did the writer use the term "roux" instead of "curry"?
1(+2/-1)
Strangerland
Why did the writer use the term "roux" instead of "curry"?
Japanese curry is made from a roux.
3(+4/-1)
Elvis is here
I don't like coconut in curry. It makes it a sweet kiddy taste.
-1(+2/-3)
big john
Japanese curry is made from a roux.
Yes, but many things are made from roux. Should you call all of them "roux"?
0(+1/-1)
Dr.Cajetan Coelho
@ Elvis is here:
Out there in Goa, coconut curries are generally prepared by cooking coconut milk with appropriate doses of chili powder or green chilies and spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, saffron, ginger, onion, garlic, and aroma imparting local edible herbs.
4(+4/-0)
