CoCo壱番屋
All the SID fans out there know about Shinji and his Ohta's Issan obsession right? Thanks to him, I actually made an effort to go find it in the Japanese supermarket and it was there. And what's more shocking was that it looked very familiar to me. It turns out that I actually have Ohta's Issan at home but of course I never noticed it before until Shinji made a fuss about it. So that's why I had a feeling that I'd seen it before.
Anyways, if I had to be like Shinji and have an obsession over a certain brand of medicine, I believe I've found my subject! Here it is.
That's some kind of Japanese allergy medicine. I have no idea what it's called though. But from how bad my allergies were on the day I went to Akihabara, I HAD to get some medicine. I couldn't go on without some sort of help. So I got this medicine and it works really well! My runny nose and watery eyes immediately stopped like someone had flipped a switch off and what's even better is that this medicine had no side effects. No drowsiness, no loss of appetite, no anything. It's really the perfect allergy medicine for me. So perfect I got some extra boxes of it to take home with me. So as soon as I learn the name of the thing, I'll be waving it around, yelling about it like Shinji and his beloved Ohta's Issan.
But the main focus of this post is not about my newfound allergy medicine; rather it is about my expedition to CoCo壱番屋 (CoCoICHI)!!! Actually, the full name of the place is "CoCoICHIBANYA" but we just call it "CoCoICHI" for short. And all the SID fans should know that CoCoICHI is Mao's absolute favorite curry place and that he has a serious obsession of it.
Before I start telling the story, I would like to dedicate this post to masaonyan because other than Mao, she was the person that I was thinking about the most while all this happened. I know how hard you tried to go to CoCoICHI while you were in Shanghai (and unfortunately failed) so I hope this entry is some sort of consolence for you. May it prepare you for your own CoCoICHI experience in the future!
So the first challenge I had to overcome in order to eat there was finding the restaurant. CoCoICHI is a chain store, meaning they're found all over Japan. There are often several stores in one district and according to something I read on the internet, they are "the McDonalds of curry houses". Except it's not fast food and it tastes much better than McDonalds and I really do hope it's way healthier than McDonald's.
Unfortunately, even though they are very commonly found, there were none in Ginza. So we had to go to the neighboring district of Hatchobori. It wasn't far by subway about one to two stops? but it took us a pretty long time to find the restaurant once we popped out of the subway station. We got lost. We walked in circles. We nearly gave up on trying to find the place. But finally we asked for directions and somehow managed to bumble our way onto the correct street. I felt such a sense of pride when I saw the destination in front of us.
I actually took a picture of the establishment after I was done eating at it and came outside, but for the purposes of this narrative, I will put it up first so that everyone knows what it looks like from the outside.
There it is. The revered CocoICHI. I wish I had taken a frontal shot but that would require going across the street and I was too lazy to do that.
As soon as we got there, we made haste to go inside because 1. It was freezing cold outside 2. We had been wandering around for at least an hour trying to find it 3. The aromas of curry were beckoning and 4. We were really hungry by that point in time. It was a pretty small restaurant. And there was a line. I don't remember how long we waited in that line until we were seated but even if we had to wait two hours, I would have done it. While we were standing there, I took a picture of one side of the restaurant.
I was so excited when we finally sat down because I got to look at the menu.
I would have photographed that entire menu except there were too many pages and it would have taken too long to do.
The corn salad that my dad ordered came up first. There were three choices of salad dressing available and he picked the house dressing. I'll never know what that salad tasted like because my dad started eating it as soon as it arrived and he was sick so I didn't want to risk eating it after he had. I found it interesting that when they brought the utensils, they were all put in paper covers. Japan can be so OCD about cleanliness.
It was cute that even their utensils were engraved with「CoCo壱番屋」.
Finally, the long-awaited and much hyped about thanks to Mao curry arrived. My dad had the croquette curry.
And I had the tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) curry with cheese.
They even had special tonkatsu sauce. This place really does make all the stuff themselves.
After putting some sauce on a piece of tonkatsu, I dipped it into the curry and took a bite.
What happened afterwards can only be described as an assault of the taste buds.
IT TASTED SO VERY DELICIOUS. It was so good that I'll even go so far as to say that it was the best curry I've ever had. The tonkatsu was soft, crunchy, and juicy and the sauce topped it off just right. It wasn't too salty or too sweet or anything. And the CURRY. It was also perfect. Spicy but not too spicy. Rich. I would even say it was velvety though I don't know how to really describe that. It wasn't too salty either. And it was made even richer and better with the cheese. It was just...it was wonderful. Beyond the imagery that words can convey. And it was original. It was unlike any curry I had ever tasted before. It had a very unique taste.
Mao, I don't blame you for being head-over-heels in love with this place. You are completely justified for doing so. And you definitely didn't exaggerate either.
I almost forgot to mention that there was pickled daikon too. The waiter actually forgot the bring it to our table and we had to remind him to go get it.
Mao, I hope I made you proud with this review. Everyone else, I hope you won't kill me for making you ravenously hungry.
Anyways, if I had to be like Shinji and have an obsession over a certain brand of medicine, I believe I've found my subject! Here it is.
That's some kind of Japanese allergy medicine. I have no idea what it's called though. But from how bad my allergies were on the day I went to Akihabara, I HAD to get some medicine. I couldn't go on without some sort of help. So I got this medicine and it works really well! My runny nose and watery eyes immediately stopped like someone had flipped a switch off and what's even better is that this medicine had no side effects. No drowsiness, no loss of appetite, no anything. It's really the perfect allergy medicine for me. So perfect I got some extra boxes of it to take home with me. So as soon as I learn the name of the thing, I'll be waving it around, yelling about it like Shinji and his beloved Ohta's Issan.
But the main focus of this post is not about my newfound allergy medicine; rather it is about my expedition to CoCo壱番屋 (CoCoICHI)!!! Actually, the full name of the place is "CoCoICHIBANYA" but we just call it "CoCoICHI" for short. And all the SID fans should know that CoCoICHI is Mao's absolute favorite curry place and that he has a serious obsession of it.
Before I start telling the story, I would like to dedicate this post to masaonyan because other than Mao, she was the person that I was thinking about the most while all this happened. I know how hard you tried to go to CoCoICHI while you were in Shanghai (and unfortunately failed) so I hope this entry is some sort of consolence for you. May it prepare you for your own CoCoICHI experience in the future!
So the first challenge I had to overcome in order to eat there was finding the restaurant. CoCoICHI is a chain store, meaning they're found all over Japan. There are often several stores in one district and according to something I read on the internet, they are "the McDonalds of curry houses". Except it's not fast food and it tastes much better than McDonalds and I really do hope it's way healthier than McDonald's.
Unfortunately, even though they are very commonly found, there were none in Ginza. So we had to go to the neighboring district of Hatchobori. It wasn't far by subway about one to two stops? but it took us a pretty long time to find the restaurant once we popped out of the subway station. We got lost. We walked in circles. We nearly gave up on trying to find the place. But finally we asked for directions and somehow managed to bumble our way onto the correct street. I felt such a sense of pride when I saw the destination in front of us.
I actually took a picture of the establishment after I was done eating at it and came outside, but for the purposes of this narrative, I will put it up first so that everyone knows what it looks like from the outside.
There it is. The revered CocoICHI. I wish I had taken a frontal shot but that would require going across the street and I was too lazy to do that.
As soon as we got there, we made haste to go inside because 1. It was freezing cold outside 2. We had been wandering around for at least an hour trying to find it 3. The aromas of curry were beckoning and 4. We were really hungry by that point in time. It was a pretty small restaurant. And there was a line. I don't remember how long we waited in that line until we were seated but even if we had to wait two hours, I would have done it. While we were standing there, I took a picture of one side of the restaurant.
I was so excited when we finally sat down because I got to look at the menu.
I would have photographed that entire menu except there were too many pages and it would have taken too long to do.
The corn salad that my dad ordered came up first. There were three choices of salad dressing available and he picked the house dressing. I'll never know what that salad tasted like because my dad started eating it as soon as it arrived and he was sick so I didn't want to risk eating it after he had. I found it interesting that when they brought the utensils, they were all put in paper covers. Japan can be so OCD about cleanliness.
It was cute that even their utensils were engraved with「CoCo壱番屋」.
Finally, the long-awaited and much hyped about thanks to Mao curry arrived. My dad had the croquette curry.
And I had the tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) curry with cheese.
They even had special tonkatsu sauce. This place really does make all the stuff themselves.
After putting some sauce on a piece of tonkatsu, I dipped it into the curry and took a bite.
What happened afterwards can only be described as an assault of the taste buds.
IT TASTED SO VERY DELICIOUS. It was so good that I'll even go so far as to say that it was the best curry I've ever had. The tonkatsu was soft, crunchy, and juicy and the sauce topped it off just right. It wasn't too salty or too sweet or anything. And the CURRY. It was also perfect. Spicy but not too spicy. Rich. I would even say it was velvety though I don't know how to really describe that. It wasn't too salty either. And it was made even richer and better with the cheese. It was just...it was wonderful. Beyond the imagery that words can convey. And it was original. It was unlike any curry I had ever tasted before. It had a very unique taste.
Mao, I don't blame you for being head-over-heels in love with this place. You are completely justified for doing so. And you definitely didn't exaggerate either.
I almost forgot to mention that there was pickled daikon too. The waiter actually forgot the bring it to our table and we had to remind him to go get it.
Mao, I hope I made you proud with this review. Everyone else, I hope you won't kill me for making you ravenously hungry.