“Are you serving soba
(buckwheat noodles) with tempura today?” A museum visitor called, saying if he can’t have this dish, he wouldn’t be coming to the museum. Fortunately, that day, it was being served. Tempura and soba, or tempura and udon noodles. Tempura has such a presence, it’s difficult to answer whether the noodles or the tempura is more important. I have a feeling there’s a story here…
First, let’s take a look at the fresh vegetables, which have been beautifully cleaned and prepared. They have been grown using Shumei Natural Agriculture’s methods to bring out their umami-packed flavors. The first thing that caught our eyes was a rare mushroom called golden oyster mushroom, which resembles oyster mushrooms with yellow on top. Our chefs tell us that when they deep fry it as tempura, it has a distinctive aroma that compliments the oil. These mushrooms can be cultivated year round so they make for a great, reliable ingredient. If you look closely, you may notice the sweet potatoes have already been steamed. The chefs lightly salts them and prepares them over a low-temperature steam for 50 minutes to bring out their sweetness. The kakiage or mixed vegetable tempura has four types of vegetables—carrots, burdock, onion, and chrysanthemum leaves—which are all evenly cut into bite-sized pieces. Apparently, they improved on how they cut the vegetables after seeing visitors having difficulty chewing through the sinewy onions.
Now, let’s see how the vegetables are fried. Our cooks use a special type of canola oil, which is cold pressed and extracted solely from the weight of a stone mortar. This oil has no extraneous flavor to detract from the flavors of the vegetables. On the counter sits a bowl with a mixture of egg and water that is chilled over ice. Flour is mixed in right before the vegetables, which have also been chilled in the refrigerator. The flow of this process begins with the carrots and mushrooms, which take the longest to fry. The lotus roots go in next.
First, let’s take a look at the fresh vegetables, which have been beautifully cleaned and prepared. They have been grown using Shumei Natural Agriculture’s methods to bring out their umami-packed flavors. The first thing that caught our eyes was a rare mushroom called golden oyster mushroom, which resembles oyster mushrooms with yellow on top. Our chefs tell us that when they deep fry it as tempura, it has a distinctive aroma that compliments the oil. These mushrooms can be cultivated year round so they make for a great, reliable ingredient. If you look closely, you may notice the sweet potatoes have already been steamed. The chefs lightly salts them and prepares them over a low-temperature steam for 50 minutes to bring out their sweetness. The kakiage or mixed vegetable tempura has four types of vegetables—carrots, burdock, onion, and chrysanthemum leaves—which are all evenly cut into bite-sized pieces. Apparently, they improved on how they cut the vegetables after seeing visitors having difficulty chewing through the sinewy onions.
Now, let’s see how the vegetables are fried. Our cooks use a special type of canola oil, which is cold pressed and extracted solely from the weight of a stone mortar. This oil has no extraneous flavor to detract from the flavors of the vegetables. On the counter sits a bowl with a mixture of egg and water that is chilled over ice. Flour is mixed in right before the vegetables, which have also been chilled in the refrigerator. The flow of this process begins with the carrots and mushrooms, which take the longest to fry. The lotus roots go in next.
