Otsuka Foods Bon Curry Review - Medium Hot

In the early days of Japanese curry or any curry really, you would use a curry powder spice mix, or make your own curry spice mix if you were a really good cook with time on your hands.  As time went on, the Japanese developed curry roux blocks that had everything you needed for the curry base in an easy to use package.  Everyone still uses these boxes of curry roux today to make a big pot of tasty curry at home.  Japanese style curry is a big home dish and a quick meal out for almost all Japanese people since it is a universal comfort food there.

Convenience took another step forward in 1968 when Otsuka Foods introduced curry in a foil pouch.  This allowed Japanese women to make a curry dinner at home with heat and ready curry sauce if they were working late.  Their Bon Curry (bon meaning good) was the world's first commerical retort pouch product and it has been a popular product since launch.  These foil pouches are now even easier to use as they have been replaced by plastic microwaveable pouches.

The very recognizable orange and yellow Bon Curry box.  The styling an logo really looks like it is from the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Very abstract and nostalgic at the same time.

Back of the box with nutritional and manufacturer's information.  Microwave and regular boil in the bag instructions are also included.

The pouch inside the box surprised me as most microwavable pouches require you to tear a corner of the pouch before microwaving it to release steam pressure.  This high-tech pouch did not have this instruction.  I actually read it several times to make sure I didn't have to cut the pouch before nuking as I didn't want curry all over the inside of the microwave.

Microwaveable pouch.  Nice neutral dull yellow color with bold black print on it.  The pouch has medium spicy written right in the middle of it in black on white.  The big black arrow at the bottom indicates this end must go down into the box for microwaving.

A Google Translate of the top of the curry pouch.  This end must stick out of the box to reveal the steam vent hole on the left in the black circle.  You can see that you use the box as a cooking tray to lift the pouch up at an angle.

Close up of the top of the pouch instructions.  Do not cut the bag before microwaving and make sure you set the power of the microwave to their suggested settings or a close setting.

The pouch sticks out of th box and the top of the box acts as a brace to lift the whole package up at an angle.

I then also had some retort packed rice to go with the curry sauce.  I nuked the rice first, which needed holes pierced in the plastic, then I nuked the curry sauce.

Pretty good instant rice.  Not Japanese rice, but basmati rice works good too.

Directions from the bottom of the box for the basmati rice.

After the rice was ready, I poured it into a bowl as mixing the curry sauce on that rice's tray would not have worked well.

I had some hard boiled eggs to add for some protein as the curry mixes never have any meat or protein in them.

When I followed the directions to nuke the curry sauce, I made sure to set the power of my 1300Watt oven close to half and nuke it for 1 minute 20 seconds.  I watched the pouch swell up and thought it would burst before the steam port popped open.  Pretty cool, but a little nerve wracking the first time I tried it.

Don't block the steam vent.  The steam pressure inside the pouch pops it open.

After warming the curry, I opened the bag and poured the contents out over the rice.  It smelled like delicious curry and looked really tasty.  I mixed up the rice and curry together as the rice was firmly packed in the container and proceeded to have my lunch.

Curry sauce on rice with boiled eggs.

The curry was a regular tasting Japanese-style curry and not too spicy at all, even for medium heat.  A Japanese curry has a curry/spice flavour that is typically savory with a sweetness to it.  Kids like mild versions of this curry so you know it is quite friendly to most palates.  The amount of heat depends on the recipe and these types of curries are quite different from Indian curries.

There were some nice big chunks of potato and carrot in it, but I'm glad I added the eggs to round it out.  This was tasty curry and I can definitely see people being nostalgic or wanting a taste of something they had grown up with through this product.  I would buy it again to have it on hand to use up some left over rice or for a quick lunch one day!

Closeup of the curry with rice.

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