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Curry Ya – A Japanese Curry Specialist Worth Checking Out In The East Village

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Japanese curry is a homey and very satisfying meal for me.  It reminds me of growing up as it was one of those things that I thought was so good when I younger.  While curry is probably most associated with Indian cuisine, it is very popular in Japan.  Curry Ya specializes in Japanese style curry, which is a mild brown curry usually served with a meat, white rice and pickled daikon.

The restaurant is a thin space with only counter space seating enough for maybe 12 people.  Because the restaurant is so small, there can be waits at peak times particularly on the weekends.

Condiments

Condiments are on the counter in front of each seat and consist of red pickled radish, pickled onions and toasted garlic.  I highly recommend using all of the condiments as they go great with curry.

Berkshire Pork Katsu Curry

This was a deep fried pork cutlet with curry and rice.  The batter was crispy and not oily although not quite as light as a really good version.  The meat was nicely tender and decent quality.  Overall, the pork cutlet itself was pretty good although not amazing.  The curry is flavorful and quite good, definitely better than most other places in NY.  8/10

Dry Curry

This curry has ground beef with chopped onions, carrots, celery, raisins, a hard-boiled egg and fried onions.  The first picture has a deep fried croquette made of mashed potato and ground beef.  The second and third pictures have a mini Berkshire pork katsu.  The croquette was good and goes well with the dry curry.  The dry curry is much thicker than the normal curry.  It’s more heavily spiced with a stronger curry flavor than the regular curry.  This is a nice change from the normal curry and tastes great with rice.  8/10

Homemade Hamburger Steak Curry

This is hamburger with curry.  I like hamburger, but I generally prefer a fried item with curry, so while this is pretty good, I prefer the fried items and curry.  7.75/10

Baked Hamburger Curry

This curry rice baked in the oven in a cast iron skillet with cheese.  You can change any of the dishes on the menu to the baked curry.  While I generally prefer fried items with curry, we got the hamburger since this curry is heavier and we thought a fried item might be too heavy for this.  This curry is heavier because of the cheese, but I found this really delicious and probably the best dish at Curry Ya.  8.25/10

I enjoy eating at Curry Ya and I eat here regularly.  If you like Japanese curry then I’d definitely recommend trying it out as it’s the best version I’ve had in NY.

Address:
214 E 10th St
New York, NY 10003
(866) 602-8779
nycurry-ya.com

Wai Kee / 清真惠記 (Qing Zhen Hui Ji) – Amazing Chinese Muslim Curry Lamb in Hong Kong

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In my December 2009 trip to Hong Kong, I randomly was walking around Causeway Bay and happened to find the 2nd floor food court at the Bowrington Road Market.  It’s a very cool food court that reminds me of a hawker center in Singapore with lots of vendors selling all sorts of different foods (basically all Cantonese).  However, one vendor caught my attention, which was a Muslim Chinese vendor selling curry meats and roast meats.  It looked really good and decided that I needed to try it next time I was in town (unfortunately I was really full when I was walking around).  I asked around and my friends told me it’s really good and it also got excellent reviews on openrice.com.  I finally got to try it on my last trip and wow was it good.

Curry Lamb (Ga Li Yang Rou Fan):

This was so good, the meat is super tender and flavorful, not gamey whatsoever.  The curry sauce is pretty oily and rich, but not in a bad way.  It’s got an amazing flavor and it isn’t too salty or overspiced.  However, it really doesn’t taste like a Chinese dish at all really.  If you just randomly put it in front of me I’d say that it was from India or Pakistan.  It also has pieces of boiled radish in it that go really well with the curry, I originally thought they were potatoes, but as I ate them I realized the texture was different.  Overall, an excellent dish and unbelievably cheap at 28 HKD. 8.5/10

Roast Duck (Kao Ya):

They are also famous for the roast duck.  It looks and tastes like typical Cantonese roast duck.  The skin was excellent, a little crispy and lots of flavor.  The meat was pretty good as well, but there wasn’t that much of it (much more bone than meat).  They give you a plum sauce on the side to dip it in, which goes pretty well with the duck.  Overall, definitely good roast duck although I’m not sure it lives up to the hype of some of the reviews I read. 8/10

If you happen to be in Hong Kong this is definitely a good place (although there are so many good places in HK) and I would definitely try it.

Address:
Shop 5, 1/F, 2/F Bowrington Road Market, 21 Bowrington Road, Wan Chai
灣仔寶靈頓道21號鵝頸街市鵝頸熟食中心1樓5號
Phone: 2574 1131