Ryuji Slams Lawson's Second Round of "Itten Toppa Bento" and Offers an Alternative: a Meatless "Japanese-Style Keema Curry"

Before tasting, Ryuji addressed comments left on the previous video. In response to criticisms like "Jumping on whatever's trendy" and "Do you have the soul of a cooking researcher?", Ryuji replied that in review videos they eat not as a cooking researcher but as an ordinary person. The verdicts this time are likewise presented as impressions from eating from that standpoint.

Reading the label on the keema curry bento, the toppings were ground pork and soy protein, with 424 kcal and a salt equivalent of 0.65 g. Ryuji explained that the soy protein is there to bulk up the meat. Their prediction before eating: "I think it's going to be bad." The reason was that with roughly 200 g of rice and only 0.65 g of salt, the taste should be weak even if everything is mixed together.

According to Ryuji, there is a kind of "formula" for salt in convenience store bento: the amount of salt relative to 200 g of rice determines whether the seasoning ends up as strong as fried rice or yakimeshi. By that sense, 0.65 g isn't enough. Ryuji also pointed out that, intuitively, an Itten Toppa bento is the same as a hinomaru bento. A hinomaru bento isn't meant for eating all the rice with just a single umeboshi either; it assumes there are other side dishes. If this bento is built on the same idea, other side dishes become essential. Ryuji said that's the same reason the bodakko bento didn't work.

Ryuji also added some follow-up on the previous bodakko bento. There were reactions like "It was fine for me" and "Ryuji is too used to salty food," but Ryuji rejected these. They explained that the salt concentration humans find tasty is said to be 0.8%, the same as the salt concentration of blood. By Ryuji's calculation, the bodakko bento had a concentration of only about 0.5% relative to 200 g of rice, which is not enough salt. Ryuji's view is that people who said "it was fine" probably just like mild flavors.

When heated, it smelled clearly of curry and was surprisingly not greasy. On eating it, it was quite spicy, and the staff all said so too. The package said "extremely spicy." Ryuji analyzed it this way: the heat creates the illusion that the flavor is sufficient, and because it's spicy, you want rice. Some staff also said, "It's way better than the bodakko" and "The flavor is honestly fine."

Asked about the amount of curry, Ryuji answered that they'd want 1.5 to 2 times as much. But if the amount were increased at this level of heat, it would become an extremely spicy keema. Saying "Basically, they're covering up the blandness with spiciness," Ryuji called it "the trickster of the convenience store world." Ryuji also said they had never heard of a bento that gets you to eat rice through spiciness.

As an arrangement, Ryuji poured on plenty of sauce. The idea was to make up for the missing flavor with sauce, and Ryuji said sauce on curry is a classic. Staff quipped, "Now it's sauce rice, not curry," but the sweetness of the sauce also softened the heat, and Ryuji rated it "tasty." Ryuji added that chuno (medium-thick) sauce might be a better match.

The final rating was C. The reason: nobody wants to eat a lot of rice with just a small amount of extremely spicy curry. Ryuji said that with this bento, you keep eating rice because you want to tame the heat, not because it tastes good. The conclusion was that while it's better than the bodakko bento, it's still no good at all.

Ryuji also offered an alternative. If it's single-focus, just put more topping on. It doesn't need meat; a keema curry with just onions would be fine. Since curry roux is cheap, double the amount, use only the soy protein they're already using anyway as the topping, and let the curry sauce alone carry the rice. That was the proposal. The current bento is edgy in a strange way, Ryuji couldn't think of how to pair it with other side dishes, and since it's small yet spicy, not everyone will like it. Ryuji wrapped up with "Nobody ends up happy" and "Lawson, could you reflect on this a bit?"

The grilled corn bento has nothing but corn packed on top of the rice. Ryuji acknowledged that getting this much corn in for under 300 yen including tax is a real corporate effort. It also looks vibrant. On the other hand, upon hearing that in other people's taste tests everyone had added meat, such as topping it with sausage, Ryuji responded, "Isn't it over once you add meat? Then you might as well have a sausage bento." Ryuji also referred to having said in the previous video that the sausage bento was the only one they approved of. Ryuji further joked, "Isn't this Lawson's outrage marketing? They're doing what I do," and "It's fine if I do it, since I'm the cooking researcher heel, but they're a big corporation."

On tasting it, the aroma was good but the flavor was sweet. It had a light teriyaki soy sauce seasoning, with no saltiness to make you want rice. Ryuji took issue with the direction of the seasoning, saying it might not go with rice and that kids would probably like it. Ryuji also said it should at least have some black pepper.

When a staff member added soy sauce and Ajinomoto and said "It's tasty," Ryuji replied, "That's just the soy sauce and Ajinomoto being tasty." Ryuji explained that corn is naturally watery, so soy sauce doesn't suit it, and a furikake like Noritama would be better.

While eating, the conversation turned to what you would do if this were the first dish a new partner made for you. A staff member said they'd "eat it happily," while Ryuji answered, "I'd tell them they should study up." The thought is appreciated, but it's better to tell them that few people would be happy with this. If you accept it with a thank-you and let it become a success experience, this might keep coming out forever, and the person will embarrass themselves out in the world. That isn't kindness, in Ryuji's view. Ryuji also said, "I'll say it even if it makes them dislike me."

Ryuji's solution was a furikake that had appeared in a previous "Furikake Championship." Since the problem is the sweetness, the only choice is to add something salty, and it's better if it also has an animal-based aroma. Ryuji said that most saltier furikake, such as mentaiko mayo types, would work.

After adding the furikake and eating, staff reacted with "It's tasty" and "It changes a lot." Ryuji explained that the sweetness and saltiness come into balance, and the added animal-based umami makes it something completely different. Ryuji added that the kick of a wasabi flavor would probably work too.

Even so, the verdict on the bento itself was harsh. Ryuji said, "Please don't try to get people to eat rice with something sweet." The reason was that it feels meager, like being made to eat rice with nothing but canned corn poured over it. While acknowledging that there's a lot of corn on top, Ryuji concluded that it didn't work.

Following a remark that when they went around Lawson stores, it was the curry that was out of stock, the staff asked Ryuji to "save the keema curry." Ryuji considered using expensive ingredients in a single-focus bento to be cheating, and decided not to use meat, unlike Lawson's version.

First, finely chop 60 g of onion. Ryuji estimates that's about 20 yen's worth. Basically, if you have onion, it'll taste like curry. Since the furikake Ryuji had planned to use for the corn bento was already used up saving the corn, Ryuji added a pack of hana-katsuo (bonito flakes) in place of meat. The logic is that katsuobushi is originally bonito meat, so adding it makes things taste meatier. Ryuji also said that keema curry with bonito dashi is delicious.

About 1 1/3 teaspoons of curry powder. Ryuji uses Indian brand curry powder, but said S&B is fine too. This amount makes it fairly spicy. Since nothing can be done about curry powder's heat after the fact, Ryuji recommends that people who don't want it spicy use a non-spicy type of curry powder.

Next, add 1 teaspoon of ketchup. Ryuji explained that if you break it down into onion, tomato, curry powder, and meat, this is the same as Indian curry. The ketchup plays the role of tomato, and the katsuobushi plays the role of meat. Then add 1 tablespoon of water, chicken bouillon to reinforce the flavor, and 4 shakes of garlic powder, cover, and heat in the microwave.

When mixed after heating, the powderiness of the curry powder, the thickness of the ketchup, and the stickiness of the cooked onion combined into a texture that felt like keema curry. Ryuji added more chicken bouillon while tasting, ending up at 2/3 teaspoon in total. Because there's so little roux, it has to be salty enough or you can't eat the rice with it. No salt has been added, so add a pinch to taste. When the finished curry was placed on rice, it looked modest in quantity, but Ryuji said, "This much is plenty to get through the rice," and stressed that since no meat was used, the cost is low.

Staff who tried it said, "This is really good," "The bonito really comes through, it's delicious," and "It's a Japanese-style dashi curry." They said it tasted like something you'd find at a popular lunchtime curry shop or as the curry at a soba restaurant. Ryuji described it as "a very cooking-researcher kind of dish: soba-shop curry made the Indian-curry way." It uses no oil, is vegetable-based, and is "super healthy," Ryuji said. A little olive oil would be fine, but Ryuji also noted that it's rare to find a curry that's tasty without oil.

Ryuji explained the thinking behind the recipe as follows. In places like India, curry is sometimes made with just vegetables, but for Japanese people that lacks umami. So the umami is added with katsuobushi and chicken bouillon. Japanese people can eat quite a lot of rice as long as there's umami and saltiness. That's why a bento works where you make a small amount of curry, plop it on top of the rice, and eat it while spreading it out—that's Ryuji's view. Ryuji also said you can make a tasty curry even without ground meat.

Finally, Ryuji also touched on their relationship with Lawson. Because Ryuji had "set off an uproar" over the bodakko bento last time (adding that it had already been in an uproar to begin with) and has done many sponsored projects with Lawson, some people have suggested it's outrage marketing in collaboration with Lawson. Ryuji flatly denied this, explaining that it would benefit neither Lawson nor themselves. Ryuji said they did this review because so many people had been saying "make Ryuji eat the bodakko."

Ryuji then half-jokingly called out that if Lawson makes another Itten Toppa bento, they should reach out, since Ryuji thinks they and Lawson could make something amazing together, and laughed, "They might never collaborate with me again" and "I'm such a jerk." In closing, Ryuji encouraged viewers to buy the Itten Toppa bento and try the arrangements introduced, and said that anyone who had doubts about this bento's curry should try making the Japanese-style keema curry—they'll probably be surprised, and it'll really get them through their rice.