The Polish Kiddies tendency to pass us diseases given the chance has taken again. Ewa had a slight cold when we left Białystok, it has taken root and made it to me as well. Normally this means she will get better while I mutate it and then I give her the new improved version back. Hooray!
When I am sick I like spicy food. We have Curry on the checklist! Hooray. Thanks Polish Kiddies!
Tourist Checklist: CoCo Ichibanya
https://www.ichibanya.co.jp/english/
The basic idea is choose:
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| So much Manga |
A sauce (pork, beef, hashed beef)
This is not the meat on top, just the sauce. It has a few small bits of meat in it but not a huge factor. Japanese curry tends towards sweet rather than chilli. I think the sweetness works better with pork. There are also other sauces but they are not in the menu under choices and the guy doesn't speak English so I am working on a point and gesticulate vaguely principle which means go for the easy options.
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| Takeout Bento, Chicken, Pork Sauce with pickles |
Level of Spiciness
Spice level is from Base to 10. Base is the default. Apparently they claim you have to have had a 5 before you are allowed anything higher. On my I'm an uncouth heathen principle I tried a 3 (vaguely spicy) and a 5 (hotter but still nothing like a mild green thai curry by comparison). The spice doesn't have the lasting burn of chilli but it is a little zingy. No eyelid sweat though which is my baseline for whether something is hot.
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| Step One |
Volume of Rice
Default option is 300g. I doubt you want more. The sauce is adjusted to match the rice volume.
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| Two |
Toppings
So many toppings! You can mix and match like crazy. If you want crumbed pork and a cheese stuffed hamburger patty (I did) you can have that if you wave and point enough. The menu only has a small list of toppings / additional things. But anything in the pictures is fair game for adding to anything else. I assume that is the case anyway, maybe he just wanted the crazy guy out of there as fast as possible.
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| Three and pour |
You can add the toppings to the salads as well.
The guy taking my order finished up by saying Bento a few times. I was confused by this but don't know enough Japanese to disagree so I just said Hai a few times, threw in a bow to be safe and sat down in the library to wait.
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| This is too much food for us |
We got takeout as delivery would be impossible, I can't even say my address. We shall return and eat in another time. When I got home I could sort of see why it is called Bento. My mum wants some Bento boxes, I doubt these would satisfy even if I washed them good...
Rating: 2/12 (and the food is an 8/10 on cold days)
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| Flakes on the roll with sweet curry sauce inside |
Probably because I was deluded and feverish I had earlier decided to grab a Kare-Pan (Japanese Curry Bread). Then I grabbed two of the local stuffed breads as well.
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| Pizza and Burger stuffed sticky rolls |
The Kare Pan is nice enough and definitely was the inspiration for having proper curry for dinner. The other two were a bit on the sticky side for me. Kind of like a not very good cha siu bao. They were from a convenience store though so might be better from other places.
Cultural Observations: Tissues
Lots of people in the street hand out packages of tissues. These are apparently a popular form of street marketing. I grabbed some for our sniffles.
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| Apparently I would not be allowed in the club advertised though |
The tissues are not super great quality but they are free. I don't think you are meant to use them in public though. There is some Japanese thing about blowing your nose being really gross.
Rating: 7/10 (Free tissues, sexy pictures, what's not to like?)
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