Friday 7 June 2019

What you need to know about eating Tempura

Of the many popular Japanese dishes out there, one that stands out is tempura - but what exactly is tempura? How do you eat it? When you come to Japan, you're sure to want to try it, so let's take a closer look at tempura.


What you need to know about eating Tempura
Source The spruce eats
Tempura is the name for dishes that have been dipped in a mixture of cold water, flour and egg then fried in oil. Because there are eggs in the mixture, some might assume that tempura are like fritters, where the egg whites are whipped, but this is not the case.

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.

What you need to know about eating Tempura
Source andrewzimmern.com
Though tempura is considered a model of Japanese cooking, the root of the word "tempura" is theorized to have come from the Portuguese "tempero" (cooking) or Spanish "templo" (temple) which spread to Japan via foreign missionaries. Tempura came through Japan during the Edo era, where "fast, cheap, delicious" fast foods for the masses became popular.

Tempura flavoring is up to you

What you need to know about eating Tempura
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.

What you need to know about eating Tempura
Homemade Japanese Tempura Batter for Shrimp, Chicken, Fish, Vegetable
Source How daily
Other than ten-tsuyu, in order to really taste the basic ingredients of the dish, tempura may be eaten with just a sprinkling of salt. Recently flavored salts have become popular, such as matcha salt (salt with green tea powder mixed in), curry salt (salt with curry spices), even novel flavors such as yuzu citrus peel or powdered Japanese pepper salts.

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.

What you need to know about eating Tempura
A bowl of rice with tempura - Source Chopstick Chronicles
Ten-don is a bowl of rice with tempura on top that has had a sauce of concentrated soy sauce, dashi and mirin poured over it; this is a popular type of donburi (*1) dish. Donburi with the tempura mixed into half-scrambled eggs are also popular.

"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

What you need to know about eating Tempura
Source Sakanaya - Champaign
Paired with the staples of rice or noodles as a side dish or on its own, tempura is a simple but somewhat fancy dish that is commonly enjoyed for lunch by the Japanese.

*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

What you need to know about 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.

What you need to know about eating Tempura
Source The Ranting Panda
If you would like to try something a bit more luxurious, you might like to visit a tempura shop with a counter where the chef prepares the dishes one by one, right before your eyes; you can eat the dishes while they are piping hot too. At this sort of shop, however, it is also very important to keep an eye on when you order and eat each piece.

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

Tuesday 16 April 2019

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan

Japan is considered one of the world’s capitals of dining. Japanese foods are unique and various, from the one of a kind - sushi to ramen. So if you are a food lover, or just simply you want to try Japanese cuisine, let’s find out these dishes.

Tempura

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Tempura is a Japanese cooking method that involves battering and deep frying seafood or vegetables in oil. It’s similar to karaage except it uses a light batter made of cold water and soft cake flour. The batter is lightly mixed and kept cold with lumps to create a crisp and fluffy texture when fried.

Hiroshimayaki (Okonomiyaki of Hiroshima)

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
As the most famous food in the prefecture, the Hiroshimayaki, or Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, is unique from those found in other parts of Japan. Instead of mixing all the ingredients together, they are layered. In addition, the amount of cabbage used in the Hiroshima version is usually three to four times the amount used in the Kansai-Osaka style.

Udon

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Udon refers to a type of thick noodle made with wheat flour. It’s typically served hot in winter or chilled in summer and is often topped with thinly chopped scallions, tempura, aburaage (deep-fried tofu), and kamaboko (fish cake). Like ramen, the type of udon broth and toppings used vary from region to region. Eastern udon tends to be darker brown in color while western udon is lighter. This comes from the type of soy sauce used.

Yokosuka Kaigun Kare

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Yokosuka kaigun kare is a curry dish from Kanagawa named for the Japanese Imperial Navy, or kaigun, which was once stationed in Yokosuka City. The Japanese navy served a spiced beef curry thickened with flour that was modeled after British beef stew but eaten with rice rather than bread. The meal became popular throughout the local area and is still said to be eaten today by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as part of their weekly meal rotation.

Ke No Jiru

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Ke no jiru is a nourishing winter dish featuring a hodgepodge of diced vegetables, tofu, and aburaage fried bean curd in miso soup. It contains root vegetables like daikon radish, burdock root, and carrot as well as wild edible plants such as warabi (bracken fern). Ke no jiru gets its name from “kayu no jiru”, with the word “kayu” (rice porridge) gradually transforming into the word “ke” over time. The dish is eaten for good luck at the start of the new year.

Bara-yaki

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Bara-yaki is a dish of grilled beef rib meat cooked on a hot plate or teppan surface over a massive bed of sliced onions. The dish was created in Aomori’s Towada City by local Korean immigrants and is flavored with a sweet and slightly spicy soy sauce, reminiscent of Korean-style barbecue. With its rich, yet down-to-earth taste, it’s no wonder that many people consider bara-yaki to be the “soul food” of Aomori.

Satsumaage


Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Popular across the country, Satsumaage is one of the most famous dishes of Kagoshima. It mostly consists of a paste of minced fish that is then deep fried. The type of fish used in the paste can vary but is often bonito, mackerel or sardines. Some other ingredients are also included in small quantities to add a bit of flavor, such as pickled ginger and vegetables.

Nabe

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Nabe is a traditional hot pot dish containing broth, vegetables, meat or seafood. It is cooked together in an earthenware vessel. The dish is a classic Japanese comfort food and has been eaten in Japan for as long as earthenware cookware has existed. There are a number of different types of nabe made with local ingredients that vary by region. Some famous varieties include kani nabe (crab hot pot), which is often eaten in the winter, and the protein-filled chanko nabe eaten by sumo wrestlers.

See more: Get to know about Wagashi, the Japanese traditional sweets

Nikujaga

Take a tour to enjoy the unique dishes in Japan
Nikujaga is a type of Japanese comfort food made with potatoes and meat braised in liquid, typically beef in the Kansai region of western Japan and pork in the Kanto area to the east. The dish is widely associated with home cooking, especially “ofukuro no aji” or “Mom’s home cooking”. It was created in the 1800s as a dish that emulated western-style stews and is often served as part of a larger meal of rice, soup, and side dishes or packed into a bento box for lunch.

Source Internet