Source The spruce eats |
The ingredients vary by the season, but in general edible plants, vegetables, shrimp, squid, Japanese whiting, and other types of seafood are used in tempura.
Source andrewzimmern.com |
Tempura flavoring is up to you
Tempura is most commonly eaten with 'ten-tsuyu' - a dipping sauce made from dashi soup stock, soy sauce, and mirin (sweet rice wine). It's also quite common to add grated ginger or grated Japanese daikon radish to ten-tsuyu; both grated ginger and daikon radish add a refreshing edge to deep fried foods.Homemade Japanese Tempura Batter for Shrimp, Chicken, Fish, Vegetable Source How daily |
And, in small amounts, citrus juices squeezed from lemons or sudachi (similar to a lime) are also great with tempura. There are some people who eat tempura with just soy sauce, Worchester sauce... The flavoring choice is entirely up to you. Half the fun of eating tempura is trying different patterns and matching the ingredients to the best flavors.
The Simple Tempura Menu
While you can eat tempura by itself, there are many other dishes which include tempura in them.A bowl of rice with tempura - Source Chopstick Chronicles |
"Ten soba", "ten udon" are dishes where tempura rests on top of thin buckwheat noodles (soba) or on thick flour noodles (udon). "Ten musu" are shrimp tempura that have been wrapped in onigiri (*2), allowing you to enjoy rice and tempura at the same time.
Read more: Get to know about Wagashi, the Japanese traditional sweets
Source Sakanaya - Champaign |
*1 Donburi: one dish Japanese meal featuring rice underneath a variety of toppings; the 'don' or porcelain bowl is typically bigger than the usual rice-only bowl.
*2 Onigiri: cooked white rice with a filling, shaped into a tube or a triangle which may or may not be wrapped with roasted seaweed on the outside.
Table manner when eating Tempura
When eating tempura at a restaurant, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the order of eating each piece. When several pieces of tempura are included on one plate, it is standard for the lighter-types (vegetables, shrimp, Japanese whiting) to be placed in front of the heavier-types (such as anago eel). It is recommended to eat the tempura from the front toward the back, as it's believed that the flavors will grow deeper in this manner.Source The Ranting Panda |
Tempura is at its most delicious when it is freshly made. No matter how fresh the ingredients are, once tempura has become cold, the crispiness of the batter is lost, so please make sure to enjoy it while it's hot.
Read more: Savor the best of Japanese beef with these dishes
Source matcha-jp