As its name suggests, World Curry in Pacific Beach is a crossroads for lovers of all kinds of cuisine. Located at 1433 Garnet Ave., World Curry is a family affair and a PB institution, having been in the beach community for 27 years.
“My mom and my dad opened the restaurant up before I was born in 2000,” said 22-year-old restaurant manager Max Jackson, the son of Bruce and Momoko Jackson, who started the business in 1995 after exploring Southeast Asia and falling in love with the foods there. “We have curries from everywhere – all over the world.”
“Reflecting on experiences, we thought about the opportunity to show our neighbors in San Diego some of the flavors of the world through curry,” said the Jackson family on their website at worldcurry.com. “We knew curry was going to be an exotic dish to the Southern California palette, and we wanted to make the dishes accessible to people from all walks of life. We loved the idea of creating an environment where you could try many different curries from all over the world without having to travel the world to do so.”
Max Jackson described curry as “a mixture of spices served with rice, chicken vegetables, tofu, shrimp, and cheese.” He added their top four curries hail from Thailand and India.
“When people think of curry they lean toward India, think it is all Indian,” Jackson said. “But really, the Thai curries are our most popular. We have a few Japanese curries that are really popular as well, along with kebabs from three different places.”
A dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, curry is mainly associated with Indian and South Asian cuisine. There are many curry varieties, and the choice of spices for each dish in traditional cuisine depends on regional cultural traditions and personal preferences. Curry dishes have names referring to their ingredients, spicing, and cooking methods.
Curries from Southeast Asia generally use coconut milk or spice pastes and are commonly eaten over rice. Curries may contain fish, meat, poultry, or shellfish, either alone or in combination with vegetables. Other regional curry dishes are vegetarian.
The menu at World Curry includes Roti Pratha, pan-fried, wheat flour-based thin flatbread; curry puffs, curry and cream cheese puffs in a crispy egg roll wrap; Samosa, potato, and green-pea filled Indian pastries; Naan bread; Edamame, steamed soybeans in the pod; soups like Thai coconut vegetable; Onion Bahji, Indian-style onion strips; Yakitori skewers, grilled chicken skewers with teriyaki sauce; Kebabs; Singapore Satay, curry marinated chicken skewers with peanut sauce; and Karaage, Japanese-style crispy fried chicken marinated in sake.
“What I really like about this place is we’re really focused on bringing cultures together,” noted Jackson. “We are bringing curries from all over the world. That’s why our business was founded. Thai food, Indian food, Japanese food, food from Bali – you can’t get that anywhere else all in one spot.”
WORLD CURRY
Where: 1433 Garnet Ave.
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.- 9:30 p.m
Sunday noon-9 p.m.
Contact: worldcurry.com, 858-270-4455.
