I have finally made it back to Coocy Curry and tried their somewhat spicy (1辛) beef curry with homemade karaage and fried garlic. I also had a plain lassi, which had a nice sweet yogurt taste, being a nice palette cleanser in between bites of any curry.
Let me talk about the toppings first. I like how this place has a section of the plate of just plain rice as a nice backdrop for the beef curry, so intelligent design really does exist. The spinach was there more as an additional vehicle for the curry so nothing much to mention there. The karaage is maybe worth talking about. I think they used a sweet rice flour (mochiko) in their preparation since the aroma and color of the chicken reminded me of the classic Mochiko chicken in Hawaii. The additional sugar provides a darker color but the taste of the almost caramelized rice flour is quite delicious. However, it was a touch dry inside, which is very unfortunate.
Finally, there was the somewhat spicy beef curry. Last time with the yaki-chicken curry, I got their normal level where the heat lingered in the back of one's palette, sort of like a person in the corner of the room at the party. The first spice level (１辛), in this analogy, is like a person who's had one or two drinks and is introducing themselves to people. Despite this additional heat, a beef stew like aroma with a deep underlying sweetness was unobstructed so I quite enjoyed it. I'm not too sure what the source of this sweetness is (I don't think it's just sugar since it wasn't clingy). I'm wondering if a vegetable broth or fruit was used....
Nevertheless, I was very happy to see that even after removing the gimmick of the yaki-curry, or the brûléed cheese-topped curry, the most important components were still fantastic. I'm going to miss this place when I leave Japan soon... 8.8/10
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