By Yuki Suzuki

Do you know the specialty curry restaurant with the yellow sign located near the bus stop of Sapporo University's south gate? It is a snug little house behind the SU baseball field. This restaurant is called Curry Leaves. It will be 11 years this March since it opened. The curry has an unforgettable taste and is popular with SU students. YFN interviewed Hiromasa Chida, the owner of Curry Leaves.

"When we were children and got tired from playing outside, we used to try to guess what dinner would be before we arrived home. As we got closer and closer to the house, the only thing we could think of was curry," he said.

Everyone has probably experienced this at least once. Curry is one of the most popular foods for Japanese children. He said that this memory was the starting point for his restaurant.

Chida was born and raised in Sapporo. He came to realize the pleasure of cooking when he worked in a cafeteria part-time in his school days, and he also worked in the kitchen of a live music club and a bar. He always loved curry, and he finally started this restaurant in 1996 with his wife. He said that if he opened a specialty curry restaurant, he would like to serve a curry which is not only satisfying to everybody, but also to serve a special one that cannot be made at home. At first, most customers were curry enthusiasts, but now people of all ages visit to taste it.

In the 1970's, a restaurant in Sapporo started to serve an original curry which is now called soup curry. There are more than one hundred and thirty restaurants that serve it. Moreover, there are also some now in Tokyo. However, when Curry Leaves opened, the term soup curry was not used. Though those who had knowledge of curry could recognize it as coming from Sri Lanka, most people didn't know that. Chida didn't expect it to become such a boom like it is today. With a strained expression he said that his original intention was just to serve curry and not worry about its popularity.

There are many varieties of curry; for example, Indian curry, and the kind of curry that Japanese eat. It is a matter of taste. To begin with, soup curry is not thick but thin, as you might guess. If you don't know about soup curry, you can easily imagine it as a mixture of Sapporo ramen soup with some spices in it. The curry of Curry Leaves tastes like stewed beef with plenty of flavor. In addition, this curry has a refreshing aftertaste of Indian curry. This is very healthy because the ingredients include chicken and fresh vegetables. The chicken has crisp skin and is boneless so that you can eat it easily. This soup has twenty kinds of spices and some customers claim their colds are cured after they eat it. It is especially recommended for women who care about their health or for people who eat soup curry for the first time. Soup curry uses chicken, carrots, boiled eggs, and green pepper with rice on the side. Regardless of the size of rice you order, it costs \950. You can choose from small, medium, or large portions of rice. There is another dish which has eggplant, mushroom, spinach and other vegetables. You can also add some spices that are on the table. Pickled red pepper is recommended for people who like spicy foods.

This restaurant can only serve about sixty curry dishes in a day. However, with a serious expression on his face, Chida said that he cooks soup curry with all his heart and thinks of each dish as a work of art.

You can see a sign which says "A house of curry and arts" outside above the window. When you enter the cozy wooden restaurant, you can see Asian sundry goods, photos, and pictures. Indeed, you come to understand the meaning of the sign. Moreover, it feels comfortable because folk music plays in the background. There are 28 seats in the restaurant, which is located in a quiet area, and it has five parking spaces.

It is a special spot for SU students when they can afford it. Even graduates come to visit again and again because they cannot forget the taste. Chida says that this curry is a little expensive, but he wants SU students to come and try it at least once before they graduate.

On weekdays, it is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and again from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. On the weekend and on holidays it is open from 11:30 a.m. until they sell out. It is closed on Wednesdays.