Tsunahachi Tempura

 Tempura master preparing his light frothy batter. It looked like pancake batter but a little more frothy. Well beaten perhaps.

 The shrimp tempura. Kuruma Ebi!!

 UKOY!! Shrimp cake tempura. Nice crispy shrimp cake. Small shrimp still crunchy and not well done. Nice!

 Clam tempura!! Really great.

  Tempura is one of the culinary  influences of the west that was widely accepted by the locals. It is a recent food trend for the Japanese starting at the turn of the 20th century. Nowadays, tempura restaurants are all over Tokyo.

Tsunahachi is an 80 year old Tempura restaurant in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I've seen their name in almost all of the Tokyo food guides that I've read. This was one of my "must" eats for my trip to Tokyo.

Tempura is relatively simple. Here are a few things to consider when eating tempura:

1. The batter wrapping the tempura should be light and crispy. If you dip it in the sauce, it absorbs the sauce quickly and it breaks apart easily.

2. The tempura shouldn't be rancid and shouldn't taste of oil. A good tempura restaurant always bear in mind to change and replace old oil with fresh ones.

3. The tempura shouldn't be overcooked. The seafood and the vegetables should still retain its fresh taste. The shrimp or ebi should still be crunchy not chewy or tough.

Their tempura is truly exceptional. The batter is light and crispy when fried. The seafood they use are fresh. They have "live seafood" aquariums similar to those found in Chinese restaurant. The eel and shrimp that they used are live and gutted in the counter. The eel...l that they used put up an exceptional fight but eventually the cook won!!

The combination of a good oil nice crispy batter, fresh seafood and exceptional skill makes the difference!!

 I will be honest. Among all the high-end japanese dishes I ate in Tokyo, Tsunahachi was the one restaurant  that wasn't too far-off from the ones we have in Manila. I can compare it to the tempura of Little Tokyo in Pasong Tamo. Thier ebi tempura isn't that too different from the ones in Tsunahachi.

It was the eel and the clam tempura that was really exceptional. The eel was soft and buttery. The clam tempura with the mushrooms was also very good. Like what I always say, you start with really good ingredients and you can't go wrong.