Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Go go gadget flow... wait, that's not right

Have I mentioned how much I love Go go curry's sauce (not to mention their provocative posters on the wall!)? Yeah, it's a pretty magical substance to me. Last year, I bought the 20 serving version and brought it home before I left Columbia for the year. That lasted all of 3 days. Anyway, Go Go Curry is another one of those places that I found whilst working at American Express. I did eventually get sick of sampling street cart food, cheap Chinese, and ultimately gave up on searching for a good beef noodle place in Midtown. As a result, I went through another phase where I loved Japanese food. Sushi, riceballs (OMSb holy crap!), and as it would be... pork katsu. Now as a little background on my love affair with katsu, when I was younger I didn't eat seafood. This was primarily due to the fact that I am indeed allergic to a crapload of different kinds of seafood, but mostly because I thought it smelled like ass (salmon and tuna especially), and even being around it would literally make me gag. When my grandmother would take us to Japanese restaurants, there was 1 thing I could order. That would be chicken/pork katsu. This sounds like a sob story, but I assure you it's not. I love fried food. I love pigs and chickens. I love rice. The marriage of the 2 is not just short of heaven on earth for me. Back to the point, Go Go Curry... one of the cheapest Japanese katsu places I could find in Midtown... I completely forgot to review it last year, so I made it a point to drag 3 of my friends to go on a free topping day. How is it?


I consider it the oasis of cheap katsu in Midtown. Sure there's Katsu-hama, but I'm a student. It's not like I'm rolling in money... I WANT FREE TOPPINGS DAMNIT! So first criteria for good food is met. It is cheap. It's actually $5.55 for the medium, and if you time it properly, that includes the katsu... I'll explain at the end. The one on pictured is the Jumbo Curry, and includes 2 sausages, 2 katsu, 2 hard-boiled eggs, and 2 tempura shrimp. On the right is our complimentary free pork katsu. Wayne and I split this, so I'm not as big a fatass as you're probably thinking right now (okay... maybe I am, just not on this occasion :D). Anywho, it's good katsu. Freshly fried, or what seems like it, both the pork and chicken katsus possess a nice distinctive popping of panko breadcrumbs, accompanied by a hot layer of oil beneath the surface of the coating. The meat is adequately juicy, and tender enough to tear with your lips... no knives here, this is an Asian restaurant after all. The shrimp are similar in quality, with a fairly thick coating of batter, but don't get me wrong... they are large shrimp (oxymorons ftw). The sausage is the slightly sweet Asian sausage that you'd find in Chinese supermarkets, chewy casing interspersed with chunks of fat. I assure you that's not as disgusting as it sounds. Finally, the egg... is an egg, nothing to mention there. The winner here is the sauce. Often times, curry sauce can be too spicy, too watery, too sweet, or too [#insert any of a number of adjectives here]. Not at Go Go Curry... they've managed to find what I think to be the sweet spot of tangy, sweet, viscous, yet runny sauce. I don't think I'm doing it justice... just... go try it.

Oh and the trick to the free topping 'trick.' The coupons are actually good for your next visit, which is absolute BS. If I show up on a day ending in '5,' it's because I want a deal on that day. So my friends and I have a rotating system. A pair of people split the jumbo curry with double everything, then you get a coupon. This coupon is passed to another friend who just gets the medium with a free katsu. Their coupon is then saved for the next visit, so that the chain reaction can continue. This of course requires at least 2 people, and the first person to order willing to sacrifice not getting a free topping (which is why we went with the double between 2 people). Friendship is... being willing to give up a free topping at Go Go Curry for a bro haha.

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oh snap. I can control the text here?