"It literally tastes like a piece of ----," a diner
says, covering her mouth and trying not to regurgitate the small spoonful of
curry she just ate.
For restaurant
owner Ken Shimizu, this is actually a compliment.
His Curry Shop
Shimizu in Tokyo specializes in a dish that deliberately mimics the texture and
flavor of feces.
Don't click away
in disgust just yet -- it gets weirder.
Shimizu is also
one of Japan's best known porn stars.
A star of
hundreds of adult movies, he's known in Japan as Shimiken, or the "king of
porn."
His latest
venture, according to restaurant manager Hiroki Okada, is an attempt to satisfy
an unlikely lifelong desire to find out what excrement tastes like.
"For
Shimiken and Pan Pong [the curry's creator], it's a question to settle before
we die," says Okada.
"We had
had no choice but to answer the question with our imagination -- until
now."
Forget the market research
Of course, they didn't just jump right in and open a poo curry
restaurant, first of all they did some market research, surveying 400 young
adults.
And, when it
found that 85% wouldn't dream of setting foot in such a place, they promptly
ignored it.
"We hope to
defeat the market research data," says Okado.
The owners
describe their venue, which opened in August 2015, as a "joke
restaurant."
They say it's
not so much about sating appetites as giving diners a good time -- or as good a
time as is possible over bowls of stinking brown gloop.
"Instead of
eating curry, the purpose of coming to the restaurant is to have fun," says
Okada. "The curry is just a trigger."
Achieving that
"authentic" poo flavor involves an arsenal of ingredients.
There's onion,
carrot, minced chicken, bitter gourd, cocoa powder, bitter Japanese green
gentian tea and curry powder.
"We also
add kusaya, a sun-dried salted horse mackerel that gives off the smell of dog
dung," says Okada.
The curry is
served in a container shaped like a traditional Japanese toilet bowl.
Better than the real thing?
And here's where it gets even weirder --
and more disgusting.
The restaurant
knows its curry tastes like poo because, brace yourselves people, Ken Shimizu
has allegedly eaten poo (or so he claims).
More than once.
"Shimiken
has eaten feces many times -- 250 people's -- so he can examine whether the
curry tastes the same as the real thing," Okada adds.
CNN has been
unable -- and, frankly, unwilling -- to confirm the curry's authenticity, but
reviews have been mixed.
Shimizu's fellow
adult movie star Uehara Ai gave
up after her third
mouthful, declaring the meal the toughest task she'd encountered this year.
Surprisingly,
some, like the Tokyo-based bloggers of Wowsabi, claim they have
slurped down a whole bowl.
Of the 300
customers who graced the restaurant in its first month, more than 90% manage to
finish their curry, according to the owners.
Some,
apparently, develop such a taste for it that they go on to eat their ... let's
stop right there.
Back for more
Despite the awful taste, the cost of the
curry is very high and profit margins are small.
But Okada claims
he's able to bank on some loyal customers.
"Many
guests visit the restaurant every day and there are more and more returned
customers," he says.
"Most visit
to satisy their curiosity -- they want to know what feces taste like. Some use
it as a penalty game. Many customers return because they enjoy seeing other
guests' reaction."
The owner hopes
his restaurant will develop a global reputation that will bring in foreign
diners.
If that doesn't
pan out, he's always got his day job to fall back on.
Okada adds:
"Shimiken still works as a porno actor. He wants to go on being one all
his life."
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