Bears live in Japan, especially Hokkaido. So it's no surprise that people hunt and eat them from time to time. It's also no shock that one of these animals might end up in a pot of curry. Bear curry isn't so entirely surprising. But what is surprising, though, is this new thing I found from Hokkaido, Japan. Zombie Bear Curry. No, wait, that's Zombear. The curry that makes no promises about possibly being tasty in any way.
It says right there on the front of the package in big red font: Decrease Your Appetite! Under that it tells you it's blue soup curry with the top right-hand corner proclaiming Blue! And guro uma which is a play on words. Guro meaning grotesque/gross and uma short for umai: delicious. Deliciously gross? Still the photo looks good, right?
Don't get your hopes up. The little splotch above the price tag lets you know there are non of those yummy looking ingredients in this bag. It's just (blue) soup. There aren't even any bears in here. In even finer print: the photo on the box is a serving suggestion.
So I tried it and it tastes pretty good, actually.
I then did a little research and learned that Zombear has his own website and Twitter account Zombear also has a backstory. He weighs 29 kilos and is 29.9 centimeters tall. His favorite food is fresh salmon. He's a big stuffed teddy bear who has been wandering the streets of Hokkaido for 70 years looking for the boy that owns him. He's got a very bad sense of direction, but is lucky nonetheless.
Please don't worry too much about Zombear not having the means to travel around and search for his master. He's and enterprising little bear, selling all kinds of merchandise from buttons, to t-shirts, to stuffed animals with red intestine cords. The latter of which is very cleverly priced at 4,771 yen. The numbers (4771) can be sounded out to read "shi na na i", which sounds like different characters that mean "doesn't die" or "won't die". Zombear!
