For readers of Americurry, it is not enough to take as given Ōtisu's First Axiom ("Curry is the best of all possible foods.") Our stomachs might be full and content, but our heads will be dull and empty. No, to find true curry happiness, we must look beyond the perfection of Japanese curry, past even the glory of the Threefold Toppings¹, to that oft-overlooked foundation stone of the curry plate: the starches.

Far more than the mere "glue" holding the curry together on your spoon, the right rice or bread can make or break a curry dish. One only has to visualize Japanese curry over a long-grained basmati or Uncle Ben's Instant to realize how much rice can add or detract from the enjoyment of curry. For the curry aficionado willing to venture slightly further afield, the popular Curry House restaurant chain offers two unique presentations.

The first, Grilled-Stone Curry (pictured top), takes its name from the searingly hot stone bowl in which it's served. A bed of rice is covered in various vegetables: corn, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, and sprouts, plus your choice of pork katsu, eel, seafood, or rib eye steak. Once the stone bowl is brought to your table, the curry sauce is poured on and the contents mixed. After a few minutes of cooking right there at your table, it's ready to enjoy.

Given the just-in-time grilling, Grilled-Stone Curry is incredibly hot -- and incredibly delicious. When lukewarm rice and tepid curry mar so many American curry plates, it's great to experience a piping hot platter. Even better is the way the stone bowl chars the bottom layer of rice, creating a crispy, crunchy shell that perfectly offsets the curry's sweet spiciness.

So what's the downside? Curry House's somewhat stingy rice-to-curry ratio can result in a dish that resembles a curried rice pilaf than, well, curry rice. Upsize your curry and maximize your enjoyment.

Another delicious option is Curry-Pan: curry-filled bread. It's a staple in Japanese school lunchrooms, and this is an excellent example. The bread has a crispy, fried exterior and doughy, spongy inside: thick enough to support the curry inside, but not so thick that all you get is a mouthful of bread. The curry filling is actual curry, a major step up from the paste-like "astronaut curry" most often used as filling. A bit more filling would be perfection, but then again, what empty space wouldn't be improved by filling it with curry?

Curry-Pan takes 20 minutes to make, so order as soon as you arrive.

Are either of these dishes superior to traditional curry? Probably not. But with two more ways to enjoy this best of all possible foods, why not stop by a nearby Curry House and judge for yourself?

¹Pork katsu, sausage, and cheese.

As you might imagine for a 25-year-old chain that specializes in one dish, Curry House's curry sauce is very good: deep brown in color, sweet, and warm. It's not the very best in the Bay -- truth be told, in a NorCal roux showdown, I'd give the edge to Muracci's. Curry House, though, would be running a close second.

What makes Curry House stand out from the rest is its staggering array of toppings and other customization options. Customization is one of the best things about Japanese curry places, and it's something that American restaurants that offer only one topping and one spiciness level simply can't deliver. At Curry House, you can pick from three spice levels, then add a wide variety of toppings to your curry. There's the usual pork katsu and fried shrimp, yes. But there's also beef katsu. Onion rings. Or menchi katsu, a fried hamburger steak.

Since we had three people on our excursion to Cupertino, we tried a wide variety of toppings. The pork katsu turned out to be the best -- a little tough, but tasty. The chicken katsu was on the thin side and had kind of a cheap, off taste. The menchi katsu was somewhere in the middle: nothing to write home about, but how many complaints can you really make about a fried hamburger?

Although the food was laid out on our plates very nicely, Curry House doesn't really balance its sauce and rice well -- we ran out of curry while there was still a big pile of white rice left on our plates. If you hate when this happens, too, the best thing to do is to make your plate a Large size. For $1.50 more you get some more rice and an extra bowl of curry on the side.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention several of Curry House's other curry-related menu items, none of which we tried. There's "stone bowl curry," only available at dinner, served in a sizzling ceramic dish. "Curry soup udon" is a curry-flavored broth served over noodles. Also, you can get your curry served over brown rice, pilaf, or spaghetti if you want.

Curry House definitely has its share of minor issues, but if you're a Japanese curry junkie looking for a fix, it'll get you through the day. Cupertino is a long, long haul from San Francisco, however, so don't expect to be able to stop in if you're vacationing here without renting a car and blocking off the whole afternoon.