Looking for comfort? To warm your soul and taste buds, there's nothing like Japanese cuisine. While you're probably familiar with sushi and sashimi, which are best served fresh, Japanese cuisine also boasts a whole armada of warm, comforting dishes, including the totemic curry.
That's exactly what you can expect at Kuma, which has two locations in Paris, one in the Marais district, the other on the Grands Boulevards. In both restaurants, Japanese curry is king. One of the most popular dishes in Japan, Japanese curry has not yet conquered the palates of all Parisians, nor acquired the notoriety of other dishes from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Yet it's a terribly invigorating dish, deceptively simple but truly gourmet. Less spicy than its Indian or Thai cousins , Japanese curry is also slightly sweeter and thicker. At Kuma, it comes in a variety of recipes, from the simplest (rice and curry) to the more eccentric, such as this curry with beef and potato croquettes (€14.50), which has just arrived on the menu.
To spice it up, you can add extras like the inevitable nitamago egg, which adds a touch of color and gourmandise to the whole. Vegetarians can also enjoy a vegetable curry.
The second dish available at Kuma is another pillar of Japanese cuisine: donburi. A bowl of hot rice, seasoned and accompanied by a multitude of goodies. Here again, you can opt for a vegetarian version (with eggplant), a chicken omelette version or a karaage version (14€), the Japanese fried chicken.
The difference is that at Kuma, the kaarage is prepared in a special way, marinated for a long time and then grilled and caramelized in the oven rather than in oil, giving it a different texture from traditional kaarage. Here, the kaarage is meltingly juicy, with white cabbage, pickles and spring onions.
The dessert menu is equally minimalist, with a selection of iced mochi (€3) with black sesame, green tea, matcha, mango, coconut, vanilla and yuzu. In the evening, Kuma unveils more elaborate desserts like black sesame panna cotta. And to top it all off, the yuzu lemonade (€4) is homemade, so you can rinse your gullet without too much sweetness!
This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know.
