Katsuhama

You have a couple more hours to enjoy the celebratory $5.50 curry at Katsuhama. The restaurant has now been open for a whole year (not an easy feat in this economy). But if you're truly hungry, I recommend the daily lunch box special. What's so great about this is that you don't have to make a choice between cutlet or noodles - you get both. Yesterday I chose a small bowl of curry udon (other selections included kitsune udon and zaru soba), which was a pile of thick, chewy-soft wheat noodles in a medium-hot brown sauce with little bits of mushroom and a pile of scallions. That was only the appetizer. The box contained a delightful variety of all different tastes, temperatures and textures. There were: a deep-fried, marbled Berkshire pork cutlet inside a batter as crisp as cornflakes, a large scallion-studded chicken meatball seasoned with sweet soy, well-chilled sashimi slivers of brilliant orange wild salmon and red snapper as well as big chunks of tuna, cold, crunchy yellow radish and lettuce pickles, a small shredded sesame-burdock-carrot salad, and some sections of sweet kabocha squash. Run there, don't walk!

Katsuhama: 43-45 West 55th St., (212) 541-7145.