At Suki, Patience Seasons the Curry

Kelly Cho, the chef of Suki, a six-seat Japanese curry shop in the East Village, eats nothing for an hour before she tastes her curry, just clearing her palate with a sip of green tea. She won’t open the restaurant until she’s convinced that the flavor is right, even though it’s a dish that she’s cooked for decades and that her mother cooked for decades before her.

Curry came to Japan from India by way of the British in the 19th century, and got sweeter and gentler en route. Early recipes were most likely cribbed from Isabella Beeton’s 1861 “Book of Household Management,” which included instructions for curried beef, doused with a “wineglassful” of beer, and curried veal, with an addendum of fried apples.

In Japan, home cooks often rely on store-bought bricks of instant curry roux, which they dress up with secret ingredients, anything from chocolate to Nescafé to apricot jam. Ms. Cho, who grew up in South Korea with a Japanese father, builds her curry from scratch, even making her own butter for the roux to get the right consistency, neither free-flowing nor at a standstill, but slow, with the slightest cling

By Ligaya Mishan Aug 30, 2018

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