Something to note: Vitamin B1 deficiency seen in Japan at this time was due to the polishing rice. If the Japanese navy had eaten brown rice, a more unpolished form of rice, “beri beri” would not have occurred. Removing the entire hull and germ from the rice grain removed the source of vitamin B1 as well as other important nutrients.

I do understand, however, that polished white rice tastes much better with curry than brown rice. I have tried it myself and do prefer white rice to brown even though I know that brown rice is better for overall health.

Thank you

Hello, CK Ang. I don’t know about the cuisine you mentioned but the food’s policy of the Japanese Army,unlike the Navy, was that it collected foods locally, so that they had to cook cuisine by locally collected foods. Maybe they created “fried papaya with dried prawns” by foods they found near Seletar in Singapore.

Tats a very interesting article. My family loves Japanese curry… we sorta “localised” it with onions.

We have another family dish, its “fried papaya with dried prawns”, which I dont really see anywhere else. My dad makes a really sweet dish out of it. Story in my family goes that during the occupation, the Japanese had a camp near my great grandparent’s house in Seletar and my grandfather would help out in the kitchen and thats where he learned the dish,sans dried prawns I guess, and pass it on to my dad…

Heard it was spotted in an Okinawan restaurant here.

Maybe da story has been romanticised (cant verify grand-dad passed away), but wld love to find out more about the dish…

Thanks for the article, I really enjoyed it. By the way the ‘Friday Night Curry’ tradition is still alive in the UK. Is it so in Japan? Check this out:

http://channel4.empireschildren.co.uk/more4show.php

[Pity we don't have Channel 4 on cable.]