Serious New Tempura Specialist Coming to Town

Whole lot of cocky pretentious unsubstantiated comments

Moderator - feel free to censor

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"Masuda fries each tempura course behind the counter, under a large copper dome, wielding a pair of large metal chopsticks to dip, collect and serve every piece. "

Wow - that’s radical. How did he come up with THAT idea?

Let’s hope that
a) it is really, really good and
b) kevin figures out what part of the 8 seat bar to find the working girls without having to ask around here.

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Conservative and traditional culture yes but modern culture? Japan has always been a land that takes ideas from the outside and made it it’s own.

Let’s not forget that tempura itself is a Portuguese import albiet centuries old by now. Tonkatsu, sushi, soy sauce, heck even meat consumption have all been influenced by outside sources.

It’s not that Japan is completely insular but that outside ideas are very slowly adapted. Japanese food may appear from our perspective to be very static and “traditional” but you are looking it at from the short term view, expand your time frame to 3 generations and then you can see that Japanese food is dynamic but changes slowly at a snails pace due to the philosophy of “kaizen” which encourages minimal daily changes to better oneself or craft.

In the kitchens of Kikunoi which has been around for centuries the current chef was considered avant garde by his peers for using a food processor to mix fish paste instead of doing it by hand. The product that came out of it was just as consistently mixed by much less labor intensive. Little changes like that define the evolution of Japanese cuisine over generations.

As for your experience and what you define as “authentic” Kyoto style tempura its still only from your perspective. Are you a Kyoto native? Have you been to every public restaurant in Kyoto? Even if you have there are plenty of private kitchens that you may never have access to that may be doing “innovative” things by today’s standards but have kept to themselves for generations. I’m not knocking you for saying that this may not be an exact experience to what one would “typically” find in Kyoto but I don’t think it’s fair for you to disuade others from trying this restaurant for not being authentic because lets face it the debate of authenticity is a whole other monster argument in itself. Who are you to say Japanese chefs cannot use truffles or foie on a regular basis?

Chef Murata of Kikunoi the revered kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto regularly consults with Western chefs to exchange ideas and then confers with his local peers on how to keep Japanese cuisine from falling behind while still maintaining their Japanese identity. So keep in mind your experience with Japanese cuisine represents such a small fraction of the total number of restaurants in Japan that what you believe to be typical can not be representative based on numbers alone. Tokyo has over 80,000 restaurants, I’ve had some mediocre meals there but I know its not representative of Tokyo cuisine as a whole because there’s always some shokunin in a hole in a wall working his fingers to the bone towards greatness and if it involves flavored salts so be it as long as it is delicious because isn’t that all that really matters?

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Eating at the Tenpura Bar at Inaba right now. They serve flavored salts to accompany the Tenpura. GASP.

The Tenpura chef recommended the currynsaltnto go with the Anago Tenpura to counter the fishiness of the Anago. It matched much better than the plain salt or Tenpura Tsuyu. GASP. The chef explained that, while salt is generally the best match with seafood, and the Tsuyu with vegetables, he also explained certain exceptions to those general rules. He recommended the Yuzu Salt with the Shrimp Tenpura, and Tsuyu with the Kisu because the Kisu has a “plain” flavor.

While I haven’t had great Tenpura at Inaba previously, the Tenpura I had tonight was very good. I would have liked the Tenpura coating to be a little lighter, the meal was well executed and interesting.

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Did they give you the fried bone with the anago? That’s how you know it’s fresh vs packaged.

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No, but fresh Anago is sold filleted and vacuum packed so getting a bone is not necessarily an indicator of getting fresh vs. frozen. In addition, it’s not the peak season for Anago.

The place filets its own anago when available.

I didn’t say fresh vs frozen. I said fresh vs packaged.

It’s much better fresh and with the bone. More delicate and certainly not “fishy” like you mentioned. Like the most delicate white fish.

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I don’t care one way or the other, and the chef’s remark regarding “fishiness” is a positive for me. I expect Anago to have an slight earthiness or fishiness, especially larger specimens like this likely was because of the thickness and width of the fillet. I don’t expect seafood to all taste the same or not be fishy. I actually like fish and meats to taste like fish or meats - if I wanted fish that was soft and didn’t taste “fishy”, I’d ask for Pollock or Tilapia.

Also, how the chef works with this characteristic is, IMHO, what sets the chefs that care apart from others that don’t. If it’s prepared correctly and I don’t like the taste of the fish itself, it’s my problem, not the problem of the product or chef.

I’ve also had Anago and Unagi of varying sizes in the US and Japan and cut and preprared Unagi from Australia and Wolf Eel from California. In my experience “fishiness” depends most on size (larger eels are more “fishy” or “earthy”) in my experience, than whether it’s the bone or packaged.

Unagi is more fishy and earthy because it is a fresh water bottom feeder (mud). Fattier also. Not traditionally used in sushi from what I understand.

Anago from the top places I’ve had have not been fishy (Yasuda, Mori, etc). Fresh anago is wonderfully delicate and has a certain sweetness to it.

Funny you mention tilapia because that also has an earthy flavor for me as does catfish and carp.

Glad you gave I-naba a second chance. Love that place.

I know the difference between Anago and Unagi. I know Anago can be sweet, blah blah. Had it many times.

Like I wrote, I’ve had Anago and Unagi in Japan, and have cut down and cooked eels personally. Larger Anago can have a “fishy” or “earthy” flavor as well even when fresh. The piece of Tenpura I got from Inaba was from a larger Anago.

Most Sushi bars use very small Anago - the cut is usually a diagonal cross-section cut of both fillets. In order to fit on the rice, it has to come from a small eel.

What I wrote is that size, as well as farming techniques (most eels are farmed raised now) has more to do with the fishiness than whole vs. vacuum packed point you are making.

I think you may have set up a strawman argument for yourself to knock down.

I said

You then started to talk about fresh vs frozen then large vs small then unagi vs anago then farmed, etc.

If you don’t think there is a difference between fresh and packaged that’s your opinion and your experience which is fine.

I was able to tell a difference in texture and taste when I was offered it without the bone once after getting the ones with the bone 3 previous times. When I asked about it they explained to me sometimes they used packaged anago and hence no bone when they do.

Some people love the tempura anago at Otafuku. I couldn’t eat more than half because it was rubbery and under cooked. They use the packaged version also. The texture and taste to me is night vs day.

Maybe they tend to package the larger ones and the ones they filet fresh by themselves are the smaller version. In either event the taste is obvious for me when they do fresh vs packaged.

You made the point that whole vs. vacuum-packed makes a difference re: fishiness in response to my comment about Inaba. I explained that the fishiness of the Anago I had at Inaba had to do with size because it was larger than most Anago regardless of your whole vs. vacuum packed argument.

I’m not disputing that there’s a taste difference between whole and vacuum-packed. But, the fishiness has more to do with size rather than your whole vs. vacuum packed argument.

Strawman argument?

It’s easy to prove. Go to Japan or a Japanese restaurant or restaurants where they serve whole Anago, get two orders, one with smaller Anago and one with larger Anago and compare, or go to 2 places where they serve Anago and get a small one at one place and get a larger one at another and compare. If your palate is so discriminating, you’d have no problem verifying or discrediting what I wrote about size being the more critical characteristic re: fishiness.