Chefs upping their Japanese curry game

The Japanese have a knack for adopting foreign dishes and transforming them. Ramen, for example, is based on Chinese noodles, while tempura has Portuguese roots, and naporitan is unmistakably Italian in origin.

Another fine example is Japanese curry, which has long been considered a national dish. It is said that curry was introduced to the country during the Meiji period (1868-1912) by the British, which had India as a colony at the time. It has since mutated into something altogether milder and sweeter and is popular, especially with more conservative palates.

However, chef Satoru Mukogawa feels that it is time to change that perception. Seeing that most Japanese curries he has tried in Hong Kong are nothing out of the ordinary, the owner-chef of Sushi Kuu in Central decided to devise a more complex, sweet-and-spicy version that is popular in his native Osaka.

"In the past, the Japanese could not adapt to the taste of using so many spices so we developed our own and toned down the flavour," says Mukogawa. "But now the spice time has come. People go to India and Thailand to try the real thing and restaurants serving authentic Thai or Indian curries already exist in Japan, so we're pretty much educated. We are ready to have more spices for complexity."

The result is Tiger Curry, an upbeat corner shop on Pennington Street in Causeway Bay. Housed on the ground floor of a three-storey building which bears a grey geometrical mural by graffiti artist 4Get, the shop has a black-and-yellow interior and boasts an open kitchen and al fresco dining area.

Together with Calvin Ku, Buzz Concept's food and beverage director, they set off to create a unique blend of curry spices. Their destination was a massive spice plant in Osaka, a company which Mukogawa says handles 80 per cent of the country's spices. From there, they came up with a curry sauce featuring more than 25 spices, as well as the company's crunchy, dye-free radish pickle that Tiger Curry serves on the side.