> Of course as with many things in japanese culture they carried Tempura to a next level
That is true. Although to experience the real thing you really have to be in Japan.
Sadly the Westernised versions of Tempura are more often than not massacred imitations.
The most common errors in the West are that the batter is wrong or, the most common of all faults ... the oil is old.
With true Tempura in Japan, the oil is frequently refreshed during the course of service and in addition is not shared with other deep fried foods. Both of which actions serve to maintain the delicate taste and texture of true Tempura.
Sadly in the West (if you're lucky !) the chef will simply dump the Tempura in the same deep-fat fryer that he's been using all day to fry god knows what else.
At least in Spain we have multiple ways of batter-fry our food, which are simply different and not "wrong" per se. For example with calamari you can have them "calamares rebozados"[1] vs "calamares a la romana"[2], which are two very different styles of doing it. And then even within those there are variations ofc. While Japanese Tempura is very homogeneous on its style all across, like most of Japanese food (quality might vary a lot, but cooking styles usually don't).
Then there is the point of oil, while we'd normally use olive oil in Spain, it's crazy expensive in Japan so surely they use other oils, which also change the taste and very likely make it feel lighter.
Always old oil, wrong temp, wrong oils / bad oil blends, less regional variety as seen in Japan. Never mind the range of ingredients battered and ways of serving/plating it. Tempura in North America is dire. I’ve eaten at many Michelin tempura exclusive restaurants
no just a qualifier on personal experience eating around japan. there are almost no michelin starred tempura restaurants in north america, like 2 total in the US. the tempura places in toronto are all bad so i stopped going.
That is true. Although to experience the real thing you really have to be in Japan.
Sadly the Westernised versions of Tempura are more often than not massacred imitations.
The most common errors in the West are that the batter is wrong or, the most common of all faults ... the oil is old.
With true Tempura in Japan, the oil is frequently refreshed during the course of service and in addition is not shared with other deep fried foods. Both of which actions serve to maintain the delicate taste and texture of true Tempura.
Sadly in the West (if you're lucky !) the chef will simply dump the Tempura in the same deep-fat fryer that he's been using all day to fry god knows what else.