House of Curry

So, I know this is going to be a little hard to believe (especially to those of you who used to work with me in California), so brace yourselves - I have NEVER tried curry before. At least, not to my knowledge... I guess it is possible that it was slipped into something I may have ordered at a restaurant in the past... so I guess I'm almost positive that I've never tried curry before. I've always had some sort of aversion to it that stemmed back to my childhood. I haven't confirmed this with her, but I'd bet good money that my sister has the very same aversion... something about a certain smell that surrounded one of our neighbor's house (of Indian descent).

Okinawa has a very, VERY popular chain of restaurants called Coco's Curry House, which, Matt and I will both admit, we've been avoiding this past year. It hasn't been easy - all of my co-workers LOVE Coco's. All of Matt's co-workers LOVE Coco's. Last week, we were having a kind of "date night" and decided to give in and see what all the fuss was about.

We have one of the restaurants really close to our house, right off-base, so we went to that one, and it was packed! One thing about Coco's Curry House is that its open really late, so it's a popular place for Americans to grab food after going out to bars. In fact, the honchos (taxi cabs) line up in their parking lot to pick up stragglers that need to get back to base. Those drivers aren't dumb - they know where the money is! Anyway, Coco's is somewhere between a fast-food joint and a nice restaurant. You order your meal in parts:

1. What kind of meat you would like
2. How much rice you would like
3. Which veggies or other ingredients you would like
4. What level of spiciness you would like your curry

They sell their own sauces

The spiciness range from 0-10, and there is a disclaimer that no one is authorized to order levels 8-10 unless they have prior experience trying at least a Level 7. No, I'm not making this up. I guess its THAT spicy! I got a Level 1, and Matt went with the Level 2 - both of these seemed to be great choices for the two of us. I think I'm going to stick with my Level 1 - plenty spicy for me! Maybe a Level 2... someday...

Coco's served us enormous portions - especially for Japan! The curry just tasted like spicy sauce, not at all weird like I expected it to. It was, however, extremely filling, and I only ended up being able to eat half of mine. One great thing to note about Coco's Curry - It makes even better leftovers... and that only took us one year to figure out;)

Good Smell. Good Curry.

-C