Local Flavor

During the War of 1812 when Oliver Hazard Perry was battling the British on Lake Erie coining his famous line, "We have met the enemy and they are ours" the younger Perry, Matthew Calbraith, was opening shipping lanes to Japan. Along with it brought the relationships between nations' world travelers; sailors. The Japanese navy began to interact with navies such as the British, and brought back spoils of their exploits. One of them being curry. The Japanese adapted it to accommodate their rice. The result was something now known as a Japanese Navy delight. It is a dish specific to Yokosuka (Yah-Koh-Ska) and the duck sailor shown represents all forms of the dish. The leading restaurant in the area is Coco Curry.

We went to Coco Curry today and now we want it all the time. It was amazing and the menu is in five languages. The combination of the spicy curry flavor, which once could choose from 1-6 heat levels, with the Japanese rice was a perfect match. You are really missing out in the States. In hindsight, it becomes one of the reasons that fulfills our desire to seek the overseas adventure. I never want to be the American that never leaves the confines of the base and reports how much Japan sucked because all I ever did was go to the base club; where there is nothing but a lot of, what Jennifer would call, "frontin'".