APPLE CURRY

I went to Capoeira class last night. It felt good to be back, as it'd been almost a month since I last worked out. It was a full house, and there were a fair amount of new people. I could tell the prolonged absence due to the winter holidays softened my body up a bit, as I had to catch my breath after some of the drills. Once I get back in my regimen, I'll be all good. At the end of class, there was a good roda, although Z said he wanted all the new heads to get a chance to play, so I only had time to jump in once.

I wanted to go to Sunday's class, but I was running late, and by the time I was ready to go, I realized I hadn't gone to the grocery store yet. I wanted to get a number of things, and since the store closes at 8p, I decided to just skip practice instead of being incredibly late and do my dinner shopping, because I knew I would be really hungry after exercising--it's kind of like Rock, Paper, Scissors: food beats exercise everytime.

Tonight I'd decided I wanted to try to make curry rice, for the first time. Curry dishes are very popular amongst the Japanese, and since living in Japan, I've really come to like curry and rice; actually, it's one of my favorite meals. There is even a fast-food curry rice chain in Japan called CoCo Ichiban. Besides all that, my cooking repertoire had recessed as of late; I lost my zeal for making yakisoba (fried wheat noodles), and ckicken ramen for dinner had gotten redundant.

I decided I was going to try my hand at curry, but not just any curry--apple & chicken curry. I'd seen a box of a brand of apple curry at the store some time ago, and just the thought of apples in curry sounded really tasty, so I'd been dying to try it. Until now, Aaron had been the resident curry rice master; he made really chunky curries with potatoes, mushrooms, and onions. At the store to the grocery store and got my ingredients: golden green apples, carrots, white onions, chicken breasts, rice, adn fo course, the curry. I bought a pricy 2kg(4.5lb) bag of rice, which came to about US $14. This actually was the cheapest, smallest bag I saw. There were like fifty different types of rice, and they had 10kg bags for about $60. Dang. The Japanese are serious about their rice. Back in the day, rice was used as money. You really feel that when you pay 14 bucks for a 5 lb. bag of rice. I rarely eat rice at home, so this 2kg bag should last me a good while. It's a LOT of rice.

It's actually very easy for me to grocery shop in Japan, because I usually don't have to speak to anyone; I just collect my food, check out, pay, and be out. I go into that grocery store everyday and rarely have to utter a peep, so I'm sure I shocked the checkout girl when I asked for a price check:

(translated)
"Wait. How much is that curry?" I always watch my items being rung up.

"It's 218 yen," the checkout girl said.

"isn't it 198 yen?," I asked. Before she could answer, I went back to the aisle to check for myself, with checkout girl in tow.

Pointing at the display tag, I say "Look. It's 198 yen."

(With a surprised look) "Oh, I'm sorry! I'll correct it."

Oh yes, Japanese stores make mistakes, too. It feels good to catch those kind of mistakes which save you money, even if it was just 20 yen. It's the principle, right?

Anyway, I got back home and diced up my chicken fruit and veggies real good. I usually like to follow written instructions when I cook, but that's rather difficult when the instructions are in Japanese. I had to solicit the resident curry master for a little guidance. It all seemed pretty simple, and after about 45 minutes of careful mixing, simmering, and adding I came out with decent and CHUNKY curry. I steamed some rice in the rice cooker, and I was good to go. Next, the taste test: It was the "the bomb," as my little cousin used to say. Or it was "the beezy fo sheezy," as Snoop would say. Actually, it was REALLY delicious; the apples gave it a nice flavor. And considering it was the first time I'd ever made curry, it was dangon' good! Even the curry master dug it.

Brotha got a brand new bag. Culinary skills upgraded.