Soup Curry @ Soup Curry Satsuma Goya, Tenmonkan, Kagoshima

 

This can probably be one of my greater local finds, if there is any. And again, this is another basement based restaurant, no pun intended. 

Love the open kitchen concept

Soup curry specialty store Satsuma Goya (スープカレー専門店 薩摩剛家), or Satsuma Goya, for short, is a shop that sell, well soup curry! The name says it all anyway. One thing I like about Japanese food outlet names, they can be pretty direct. Hence making it easier to figure out and also manage expectations. So it was no surprise that I ordered their soup curry dish for dinner for this evening. And more specifically, the Goya Special, which has pork, chicken and a whole lot of veggies. That stood for 1425 yen. And it comes with a plate of rice. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. 

Dinner is served. 

And what was on that place was indeed special. I have not seen a curry that has so much variety! Clearly someone likes to play with their food. Random bits of different meats and veggies just congregate into one bowl, somehow singing in harmony together. 

A closer look

The soup itself was strong, full of impact but yet very harmonious. There were traces of various spices like fennel, cardamom, aniseed, mustard seeds and so on. And of course traces of alliums like ginger and garlic.  Like lots of ginger. The heat itself was just right. Mind you that I ordered a heat level of 3 from the scale of 1 to 5. 

Oink oink!

The ingredients in the bowl was quite good too. Both the pork and chicken were tender and flakes easily to the touch. The pork was pretty special, as it seems to be braised beforehand before it meets with the spices. And they specifically highlighted the pork as it is that Kagoshima famous kurobuta. Gotta hand it to them in loving their pork. 

So golden

The veggies were also quite good. One thing that particularly struck me was the roasted pumpkin. It was sweet yet savoury and still had some of its integrity left. I really liked it and it was a joy to chow on. The potato that was in there was fluffy and tender. And if you did not notice by the pictures, there is an entire carrot in there. Pretty healthy indeed. 

A sneak peek inside. More people came in later. 

This place really caught my by surprise as I do not know what to expect. But alas, alls well ends well. Located in Tenmonkan, this was a convenient place to go to and relatively easy to find. Seriously, in the event you want to have your own trip in Kagoshima, just base yourself in Tenmonkan. Your catering and shopping needs will be met easily. It is the south's answer to Shinjuku. Just less seedy. The specific address is as follows:

892-0827 Kagoshima, Nakamachi, 2−13 中園ビルBF1

Down the hatch!