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Happier times: this might have been my last Grand Slam, at Millenia Walk |
Go Go Curry was one of my favorite things IN THE WORLD.
For the uninitiated, a primer: a casual dining restaurant serving Japanese curry rice of the Kanazawa variety — which has no surviving example in Singapore now that the gorilla mascot-fronted Go Go (“Go” being the number 5 in Japanese, 55 being the jersey number of a Japanese baseball player with which the franchise owner is obsessed) has left the country.
There were three outlets in Singapore, with the brand brought in and (mis)managed by the En Dining group in 2009, I believe. Some elements of the experience were lost in the journey over (the original low-rent diner aesthetic, with food served on metal plates, somehow translated to porcelain in a FOOD COURT setting here, to say nothing of the missing red pickled vegetables) and it was clearly underpromoted — I’ve told my sad story of curry withdrawal to many who returned blank stares, “What curry?”, and then, “Oh that sounds like the kind of thing I would have liked, too bad.” We often say Singapore is a small place, one easy to tire of, but things in the middle of town can still elude notice.
Every time I’m in Japan, I find myself eating at least two precious mealtimes’ worth of the stuff, just because. I was grateful for the Singapore branches, only the second country outside Japan to have any, but it’s naturally best in its native land.
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Native habitat: the Go Go Curry branch in Shinjuku |
And so, finally, after a couple of years of disappointing sales despite my best efforts (I sometimes clogged my arteries there more than once a week), it just disappeared. I haven’t a clue if the contract just expired, if it was given up, or taken back. Tears were cried on the inside. I blamed myself for not soliciting a job with En Dining’s marketing department when the thought once occurred to me; the conceited idea being that maybe I could have helped prevent this. I daydreamed about making it big so I could one day buy the franchise rights back and do it right by myself. I railed on Twitter, I had a public breakdown on Facebook, and then I renounced this awful life and shook its grasp on me, wandering into the mountainous hinterland of my gastronomic impulses. Over time, in between the valleys of fading memory and hopeful promise of one day meeting its rich, dark, peppery flavor again, I finally found peace. And now I am ready to address its would-be successor.
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Of all the colors in the world: the Monster Curry identity is too close for comfort. |
Monster Curry. From the first moment one sets eyes on its circular yellow & red logo, featuring a cartoon dragon face where the gorilla’s face should be, there is the overwhelming sense of deja vu, and treachery.
With the birth of this new enterprise, in the same three places where Go Go Curry once stood, The En Dining company has engineered itself a stand-in to the throne. The large serving options are intact, and some new twists added. Inspired by the more successful CoCo Ichibanya chain, 5 levels of spiciness are now offered. In addition to the handful of fried meat options from before, some new menu items, including NATTO CURRY (abandon hope, all ye who dine here!). The porcelain plates have reached comically-large proportions: I swear the one I just ate off was larger than a 12″ pizza.
And yet somehow, the same staff who once cooked pork katsus under the Go Go banner now do a worse job in their Monster uniforms. Something’s not right, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the curry.
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Heart disease by any other name: the Mountain Monster Curry comes satisfyingly close to the decadence of Go Go’s Grand Slam/Major Curry. |
It’s thinner, and doesn’t taste anywhere as moreish. I don’t think it qualifies as Kanazawa style. This situation is helped a little by the proprietary new hot sauce they add according to your scale-of-1-to-5 spice wishes. I don’t want to give it too much credit, but the hot sauce is the best thing Monster Curry has to offer. If you don’t get at least one dollop of it (that’s my personal limit), you may as well not eat here.
There’s a spiel I’ve seen written up on a couple of food blogs around the net (must have gotten the same press release), about the lengths En’s head chef went to in the creation of this ‘ultimate Japanese curry’. The stuff is purportedly cooked for two whole days before being given another day to collect itself in silence before being served. He needn’t have bothered! It’s flat and devoid of character without the hot sauce. I’ll bet that’s made in a blender in under 5 minutes.
I’ve been back to eat the stuff several times now, not nearly as frequently as before, but close. It’s all I’ve got for now, anyway.
In all fairness, would I have willingly traded Go Go Curry in for this? Of course not. But the list of things I wouldn’t pick over having Go Go in Singapore is long: The Whopper, Colonel Sanders’ original recipe chicken, Frappucinos, steady employment, the love of my parents…
I’ll end with an excerpt from my smartphone diary:
My $19 “Monster Egg Curry” large enough for two (pfft!) has arrived. The cheese is off to one side instead of being placed on the hot curry to melt. Why are they getting this wrong now? It’s as if being privy to the methods of a leader in Japanese curry as an official franchisee for over 3 years has taught them nothing. What.
6 responses to “On the Loss of Go Go Curry in Singapore, and Monster Curry”
I agree! Monster Curry is an atrocious rip-off on monetary value and food quality. Why don’t you bring the franchise back? 😀
Oh man, I was searching for Go Go Curry in Singapore (unbeknownst to me, it had closed down) because the curry in Akihabara was the best curry meal I ever had, hands down. So what have we got here in Singapore? Personally I haven’t tried Monster Curry, and judging by your critique, it must be a few notch below Go Go Curry. And CoCo Ichibanya was a memory long served to be forgotten, it was uninspiring and your typical run-of-the-mill curry, worlds apart from the meal I had in Tokyo where I had gorged myself silly. I do agree that having the porcelain plates serves as a joke more than it’s purported purpose; why on earth is the plate bigger than your average male’s face? Don’t get me wrong, I do love me a hearty meal, but I think the plates themselves serve more of a hindrance rather than the no frills metallic plates commonplace in Tokyo. Do you know anywhere in Singapore where the curry doesn’t suck? If not, I guess compromises has to be had..
Cheers,
YH
i had the same feeling when gogo curry was changed to monster curry.. but what makes me sad was not the curry…
the tonkatsu.. gogo curry cutlets were thick and JUICY. monster curry were tender at best and really disappointing.
cutlet from gogo curry were better than Ginza Bairin..
I had a bunch of comments on this post that were lost in the move over from Blogger awhile back. I also hadn’t noticed how bad the formatting was. All fixed now.
Thanks for the commiseration, but I’m afraid I haven’t found anything locally that can equal what Go Go Curry once was. On a recent trip back to Japan, I ate a lot of Coco Ichibanya, which was a lot better than I remember it. I suppose the outlet matters. In any case, all the CocoIchi branches in Singapore are terrible in comparison. They remind me a lot of how key elements of Go Go Curry were butchered in the move over here. At Coco Ichibanya Singapore, the menu has been changed, portions are different, and the pork cutlets don’t even come with tonkatsu sauce for crying out loud. Well, that’s another post for another time.
So far the best curry i tried:
1. Matsuya in japan
2. Curry house in la (once opened in jkt but closed down due to low sales)
3. Go go gorilla curry (also open in jkt before but closed down also)
Now i cant find any good curry that can match those 3. So sad😂😂😂😂
Monster Curry ain’t worth rather eat at CoCo