So who invented curry? India? Japan? The middle East? Well, whoever invented it knew what they were doing. Curry has such a pronounced flavor. It is familiar, yet exotic. As a Korean American, I ate the Japanese kind a lot growing up. Those solid blocks of curry, oil, and MSG was sometimes a common staple at home. My mom would make a big pot of curry, and we could eat for days. I would pour it over rice, eat it with some daikons or kimchi, and I was set.
In Japan, peaople eat curry rice 125 times a year. It is no question that curry is a popular dish in Japan. Coco Ichiban Curryhouse is all over Asian, including Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and of course, Japan. Southern California, more specifically Torrance, CA is lucky to have a Coco Ichiban.
The dishes are tasty and cheap. There is a special way of ordering. You select the type of curry (base, spicy, extra), then you choose your rice proportion. As for me, I just got the regular base proportion. Finally, you can choose spiciness. They have 10 levels of spiciness, and I would like to try the highest level one of these days.
Their salad in the beginning of the meal was a great start. The sauces were very different, but the sesame vinaigrette was my favorite.
I tried their pork katsu and the chicken katsu. Both were crispy and tender.
The beef curry was very something that hit me close to home. My mom would make big pots of curry at home, and the main protein would just be beef strips. The beef in the curry at Coco Ichiban were huge, almost like beef chucks the size of golf balls. It was tender and had no signs of chewyness. This was definately a good contrast against the crispy katsu.
Torrance is lucky to have Coco Ichiban. They offer cheap and good curry with a nice atmosphere. They offer different size portions and spicy levels. Really, I will try that level 10 one day.
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