Hokkaido soup curry in Singapore
Soup Curry by Ki-setsu’s menu has a bunch of appetisers and sides, but the headliner is obviously the soup curry.
The soup curry is its only main dish and is available in two different permutations: soup curry chicken bowl (S$14.80) and soup curry vegetable bowl (S$14.80).
The soup curry base itself is rich and comforting but since it incorporates brined chicken in the cooking, the salinity is a bit more pronounced in the mix.
This profile makes sense, given the Japanese do prefer heavier flavours — the team told us that the ones they’d tasted in Japan were actually even saltier!
You can also customise your spice level at Soup Curry by Ki-setsu, from level zero to four.
Wanting to be more cautious, we opted for level one (less spicy) and two (normal spice) but they turned out to be not very spicy at all — spice lovers will do well to turn up the heat up to a level four (extreme spicy).
Of the two options, we recommend the soup curry vegetable bowl. To us, the vegetables were an even bigger highlight than the soup base itself.
Surprising, right? Well, here, the veggies are not merely blanched, or cooked in the soup.
Instead, Soup Curry by Ki-setsu flash fries the veggies to bring out maximum fragrance while retaining the produce’s texture.
The team prioritises in-season vegetables, which means that not only do diners get the freshest selection, but also one that might change from time to time — great for those who love variety.
It’s actually in their name: “Ki-setsu” means “season” in Japanese.
When we visited, the bowl we had actually included quite an assortment of vegetables in its vegetable bowl option, ranging from cabbage and carrots, to eggplant and potatoes.
Our favourite of the bunch were the cabbage, which was smoky and chockfull of flavour, and the broccoli, which had the florets fragrant and lightly crispy from the frying, lok-lok style.
The eggplant and mushrooms are also close runner-ups, with the former being wonderfully soft and the latter being meaty and juicy.
The chicken bowl version is still pretty enjoyable, and it also comes with the similarly cooked veggies, just with reduced variety (six instead of nine).
Soup Curry by Ki-setsu also serves this permutation with a rather sizable chicken thigh (also available at S$2.80 as an a la carte add-on) that is decently tender.
We just thought the meat seemed to be on the blander side, but that might be a good thing considering that the soup is already relatively flavourful.