“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
― Oscar Wilde

If I can eat the same dish everyday, it would be soup curry. Well, this is definitely my waterloo.

The soup curry is Hokkaido’s take on the Indian and Thai curry which originated in Sapporo. And after eating different soup curry here in Obihiro and Sapporo, my palate belongs to the SAMA Soup Curry shop. My Japanese labmate and friend introduced me to this shop when I was new in Obihiro. And since then, I always crave for their soup curry.

I think I have eaten nearly a hundred of soup curry since I came here in Japan. My Canadian friend even told me that he thought my job is a professional soup curry photographer since I took a picture of the soup curry everytime i eat one.

Ordering the soup curry in SAMA is easy. You just have to follow these 4 steps. (1) Choose the soup base. It can be coconut soup, shrimp soup, tomato soup or the other soup bases they have. My favorite is coconut soup. (2) Choose the meat: chicken, pork or hamburger patty; or even seafood or just plain vegetables. The chicken is tender and well-cooked such that the bone is so soft . (3) Choose the level of spiceness, from 0 to 30. My Thai friend requested for the level 50 and the soup is just all black. I think I will just settle with 3 or 5. (4) This is just optional, you can choose additional toppings for the soup curry such as cheese, fermented soybeans among others. As for me, I always add cheese on my soup curry.

SAMA is originally from Sapporo but the Obihiro branch serves the more delicious soup curry. I don’t know why though. There are 2 branches of SAMA in Obihiro, one of which is reachable from my apartment for about 30 to 40 minutes by walk. I was so happy when it opened 2 years ago.

What I like about the soup curry of SAMA is that all the ingredients absorb the flavor of the soup. Unlike in other shop that they cook the ingredients separately, so the vegetables taste different from the meat and the soup. The oneness of the taste of all the ingredients made SAMA soup curry superior from the others.

Last year, I did a 5-day soup curry challenge where I had soup curry meal for 5 days in a row. I thought I can actually extend to a week, but I stopped when I was smelling already like a soup curry. Lol.

Just recently, I have tried their delivery service for my lunch at the university. This is a very good choice in winter. I think I will do that again soon.

There is one weird thing about SAMA though. The real name of the shop is SAMA Curry and Cafe. However, I haven’t seen anyone drinking coffee there ever since the first day that I set my foot in SAMA.

Anyway, I really love SAMA soup curry. Isn’t it obvious how I love this dish just by counting how many times soup curry appeared in this blog entry? And guess what, while writing this, I am already craving for a SAMA Soup Curry.