On September 7th Hiroko prepared and hosted a Japanese curry night at the Worcester Dining Hall of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Preparing for an army of voracious college students at UMass is a real challenge. Thirty five pounds of onion, 3 pounds of flour, 3 pound of butter….house made chicken stock, curry powder, sweet chutney…all in a huge steam cooker were cooked down nicely until a wonderful
dark brown color, stew-like texture with a slightly spicy, and sweet flavor was produced. Students, who were attracted by the delicious but new Japanese curry aroma (it quite different from Indian or South East Asian curry!) formed a long line for their first Japanese curry experience. Before the meal ninety percent of the students did not have any idea what Japanese curry tasted like. We offered two choices – curry with rice or curry with Japanese white udon noodles. After choosing the rice or noodles, students selected the toppings – shrimp, chicken, tofu or beef – to add to their curry sauce and curry broth.
Here are some photos of happy students taken by a professional pohographer Keith Toffling (Keith Toffling Photography). The last photo, a dish of curry, shows only a very small portion of curry sauce on the plate. Our curry sold much quicker than we had expected, and I could find only little left for this photo opportunity.