Monday, November 17, 2008

Herb Curry Dosha

Location: Okinawa City, off the 330. Heading north on the 330, pass Gate 2 street and BC street, make the 3rd right after BC street. This turn is into a residential neighborhood. Spot the brightly colored apartment complexes (they will be on your right) and head towards those. The restaurant is on the street that leads to the towers and their parking area.
Hours: 12-2100, closed Wed and Thurs, and some other days (check their blog http://blog.dosha.in/) No English menu, no English speaking staff
This is an unusual cafe in a strange place, shadowed by the nearby high-rise apartment buildings. There is distressed wood flooring, a wooden bar, mismatched chairs, and two memorable decorative accents - a ladder and a piece of rusting corrugated metal roofing. We did our best at ordering, which was made easier by the fact that really only one thing is served here. She makes a red-brown mild Indian-esque curry sauce and serves it with a plate of rice covered in a variety of toppings. You can choose the toppings individually (choice of 3 for approx 900Y) or get the day's set of toppings. The set comes with a drink of iced/hot coffee/tea and two chutneys. The day's set (approx 1100Y) included toasted garlic slivers, fried onions, raisins, mashed potato, steamed greens, shredded green papaya, and slivered toasted almonds. When all this is brought out on a wooden plank it is unclear exactly what to do with it. We quickly discovered that each ingredient in isolation was not very good, but mixed up together sauce and veggies and chutneys, it was pretty tasty. It would have been improved with a bit of salt, which we did not bring with us. It is a distinctly different kind of curry than at other Indian restaurants on Okinawa, not something we would go back to again and again but certainly a nice change of pace. The portion is a bit small, but enough to hold you over until dinner.