Curry is hot — and I am not talking about the spices.
In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of curry varieties available around Japan, from small mom-and-pop shops serving intricately crafted, authentic Southern Asian curries to large retailers like Muji offering more than 40 varieties of retort packs. While I enjoy going to restaurants that serve up faithful takes, at home I’m more inclined to stick to the Japanese style curries that I grew up eating.
Dry curry was probably inspired by a version of keema matar, a dish that originated from India’s Mughal Empire sometime in the 16th to 19th centuries. As Indian food made its first entries into Japan in the late 1800s, dry curry stood out from the pack. Unlike other curries being popularized at the time, it had no liquid sauce and was made somewhat like fried rice — hence the “dry” in the name.