Eating Japan Part 7 – Tempura

In 1997 Simon Woodruffe had the bright idea of opening a Japanese ‘kaiten’ conveyor belt sushi restaurant in London.  He called it Yo-sushi and it went on to become one of England’s most successful restaurant chains. He followed in the footsteps on Alan Yau, who in 1992 had opened a ramen restaurant with wooden tables, very similar to many seen in Tokyo, which he called Wagamama and which is now one of 119 worldwide.  Both men have sold on for enormous sums.  

There is more money to be made from copying Japanese ideas, and if I had the youthful energy of a Woodruffe or a Yau I would open a Tempura bar. Put simply, tempura is the Japanese take on the fish in fish and chips – food fried in batter.  The difference is that the batter in Japan is much lighter than ours, and they batter much more than fish.  In a tempura bar you sit at a counter and the chef cooks the food in front of you and delivers it to your plate at intervals.  This way, the food is always piping hot and the batter perfectly crisp.  As with so much Japanese food, there is a dipping sauce, which is called tentsuyu.  Grated radish (daikon) is served separately and can be added to the tentsuyu to give it a bit of a kick. The photo shows a typical serving dish, with some white fish, a king prawn and aubergine.  It was part of a set meal of three king prawns (ebi), a large piece of fish (kisu) aubergine (nasu), pumpkin (kabocha), mushroom (shitake) and lotus root (renkon) served with miso soup.  All for 990 yen (£6) – as good a bargain as you could hope to find.  It would cost more in London, but I’ve no doubt the punters would flock to it.