Tempura

Tempura is vegetables and seafood dipped in a light, cold batter and deep-fried until pale and crisp. It is Japan's lightest fried food, and a good one is judged on the crunch of the batter, not its colour — a deep golden tempura is usually a sign it's been fried too long or too hot. The technique itself isn't originally Japanese, either: Portuguese missionaries and traders introduced deep-frying in batter in the 16th century as part of the Nanban trade, and the name tempura likely comes from the Latin tempora — the fasting periods when Portuguese Catholics ate fried fish instead of meat. Japan took the method and refined it into something entirely its own.

What it actually is

A thin batter of flour, egg and ice-cold water is mixed as little as possible — overmixing develops gluten and makes the coating heavy, so lumps in the batter are a feature, not a mistake. Shrimp, along with vegetables like sweet potato, pumpkin and shiso leaf, are dipped and deep-fried in oil kept just hot enough to set the batter into a lace-like, almost translucent shell without browning it.

It's eaten dipped in tentsuyu, a light dashi-and-soy sauce, or with just a pinch of salt for the more delicate pieces, where a heavy dip would overpower the batter.

How it's served

• Piece by piece, straight from the fryer, at a tempura counter, so nothing sits and goes soft.
• Over a bowl of rice, as tendon, or alongside soba or udon.
• On a paper-lined tray, arranged so the pieces don't touch and steam each other soft.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten and egg from the batter, and crustaceans if shrimp is included.
• Say if a vegetable-only version is available; it's a genuinely different tempura, not a lesser one.
• Note that it's best eaten immediately — tempura that travels or waits loses the entire point of the dish.
• Distinguish tempura served alone with dipping sauce from tempura over rice (tendon); they're different orders at different prices.