Tempura (天ぷら)

We were probably not very sober on this day, starting mid-day with beer at Asahi Beer Hall and Tower. I fail to see how the golden flame errected above the Beer Hall reflects the soul of the company- the burning Flamme d'Or is supposed represent 'Asahi Super Dry'. All it shrieked out to me is how unmistakable Philippe Starck's ego has imprints all over it. Please resist all rude impulses to call it a piece of golden turd. Anyway, the flow of Asahi beer continued at lunch in the nearby restaurants.

Most places don't do a good batter to produce yummy tempura (天ぷら). Or they use a rather strange sort of oil to fry the batter which can taste quite off. I can tell the rather obvious differences in tempura if it's been dunked in vegetable oil, canola oil or sesame oil. It's not easy to find a restaurant that can do tempura well, not in Singapore and also not in Tokyo.

We enthusiastically checked out two touristy tempura restaurants in Asakusa- Aoi-Marushin (葵丸進) and Daikokuya (大黒家). They didn't look too bad. At least when we were there, hordes of locals were having lunch. Not so many tourists were present. Big premises, by Tokyo standards.

While the tempura restaurants also serve sushi, I think you could give it a miss. The sushi doesn't look good. The sizes are too big! There was sushi on our table and I tried a piece. It was of an inferior cut of fish atop tasteless rice and too thickly rolled. Not a proper piece of sushi. These sort of cuts of fish are suited to be eaten cooked, not raw. They did way better beneath a cheerful bright golden layer.

Giant prawns and fresh vegetables fried in light crisp batter that didn't ooze oil when served. Best of all, they didn't stink of stale oil. These have been properly done fresh in the morning and upon placing of our orders. I'm not an expert on tempura since I'm no huge fan. But I could discern the fresh oil and batter used in the food. The kitchen took care not to leave burnt bits in the oil because that would be very obvious to taste. The kitchen's got pride in serving their customers. However, between these 2 supposedly popular tempura restaurants in Tokyo, I don't eat enough to be able to tell the differences. Both seem rather good. We don't appreciate tempura enough to go to 7chome Kyoboshi to put it to test.

I cringed when the friends chomped up batter-covered aojiso (or shiso/perilla) leaves. I like the seeds in cookies well enough, but I haven't learnt to eat it raw. It reminds me of scary mint leaves, although logically, it doesn't taste anything like that. The okra is another scary vegetable too. Probably the texture that I never got used to. As a kid, I always ran away screaming from okra. Heeeeeee. I love the bell peppers, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, eggplants and the other vegetables fine.