Tempura - Ten Ichi Tokyo

Tempura is something we have all eaten in some form or the other. Tempura refers to a dish of seafood or vegetable that is coated with a light batter, unflavoured except for seasoning and then deep fried. This was something introduced to the Japanese by the Portuguese. The Portuguese introduced deep frying to the Japanese. After that Tempura has become an absolute rage.

In India we have our version of Tempura where vegetables are coated in a batter and deep fried. We call them `Pakoras’ or `Bhajjia’, there being a few crucial differences from a true Tempura. The batter we use in India is normally chickpea flour or `besan’ as opposed to `maida’ which the Japanese use. The other difference is we more often than not flavour our batter with Turmeric, Chilli Powder and other spices. Lastly, our batter coats the vegetable far more heavily than Tempura batter.

I often wondered what is so great with Tempura that it has achieved such fame. It is not that difficult to deep fry something. The trick is to get the oil hot. That is unfortunately where most of us fail. We simply do not get the oil hot. Often if the oil is hot we dump too much material into it thus effectively lowering its temperature. All this results in an oily end result.

So, what would an ideal Tempura be? Obviously it should not be oily. The batter should be light and totally crunchy. A necessary corollary is that the item should be presented as soon as possible after frying and the punter should eat it as hot as possible. An ideal Tempura should be cooked thru and the taste of the vegetable should shine thru and not that of the batter. Seasoning and flavouring should be complementary, so it should be simple. Salt, Lemon and Radish mixed with Soy Sauce are the only condiments. All in all not too difficult to do. The only thing is that you should sit in the kitchen and eat as soon as the food is fried. Also you need someone frying your food.

Ten Ichi is an old highly regarded Tempura restaurant that started in 1930 and is still going strong. Everyone who is anyone has eaten there. Jacques Chirac, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton. Frank Sinatra and Henry Kissinger among others have sampled the Tempura there. So we made a reservation and walked across to the hallowed restaurant.

We were whisked to a lower level and seated at a `C’ shaped counter. In the centre was the Chef, in whites, with a pan for deep frying in front of him. He was to be our personal `Maharaj’ frying `pakoras’ for us. We chose a set meal. You got a largish selection of vegetables and fish along with some rice, Dashi and a dessert. I ordered a beer and HRH the Queen of Kutch got herself a Sake.

Soon the meal started. We got a large plate with a totally ridiculous, tasteless though very pretty, Amuse Bouche. Then the chef told us to take a portion of the grated radish, place it in a bowl add some Soy to it. We got another bowl with some salt and a wedge of lemon. Then he placed a small tray, a paper on the tray and started to deliver Tempura after Tempura. You can look at the pictures to see what we ate.

Amuse Bouche

Salad

Sake

Salt & Lemon

Grated Radish & Soy

My God, it was really incredible. Each dish was perfectly fried, greaseless and crunchy. With each dish the Chef instructed us on which seasoning to us - `Salt’ he said sometimes and at other times `Soy’ was his command. The meal was incredible. To get such hot, perfectly prepared food literally straight from the frying pan is a rare pleasure. The meal was exquisite. Once the food was over we got some rice and Dashi flavoured with Clams. Delicious. We were ecstatic, who does not like fried food? This was in a league I have never eaten. Then we thanked the Chef and left to another room where our dessert was served. A Mango for me and Watermelon for HRH the Queen of Kutch. Both these were divine. Even the photo looks good.

This was a rare pleasure, a really good meal. Totally simple but what execution.

Prawn

Whiting

Scallop

Shitake Mushroom

Gingko Nuts

Cuttlefish

Asparagus

Crabmeat

Green Pepper

Conger Eel

Small Shrimp clumped together

Rice

Some vegetables

Mango

Watermelon

Izakaya

We landed in Tokyo in the evening. After unpacking it was time to go for dinner. HRH the Queen of Kutch had done some research and said that we should dine at an Izakaya.

Now a bit of explanation.

Generally speaking Japanese restaurants are what we would term as `speciality’ restaurants. Thus, you have a Sushi restaurant that serves only that, a Tempura place, a Shabu Shabu place, a Ramen place and so on and so forth. Restaurants generally are regimented.

In light of this i.e. restaurants serving just one kind of cuisine, I thought I would write about the cuisines and not the restaurants. Stay with me for the next few days, you will get what I am saying.  

Izakayas are so to speak `multi cuisine’. You will get a bit of Sushi, a bit of Yakitori, a bit of Noodle and so on. These are basically drinking establishments with a bit of food, a pub. Something like a Toto or Mondegar or a Woodside Inn as opposed to say Indigo Deli. Izakayas are casual, loud and office goers will frequent them after work. They will drink, eat some food and wind their way home.

So for our first night it was to be dinner at an Izakaya. A good one was Gonpachi.

Now, this is something you will notice. With the advent of numerous TV shows on food and restaurants, places achieve international fame. So a place that Anthony Bourdain visits and makes a show on, achieves greatness. That is one end of an endorsement. The other end is a restaurant being visited by a celebrity as opposed to a celebrity chef. George Bush was taken to Gonpachi. Bill Clinton going to Bukhara in Delhi. Imran Khan eating at Trishna in Mumbai. The point I am making is that either type of endorsement necessarily means that the establishment was good, safe, probably an introduction to that Country's food. One also hopes that the place will still be good by the time you reach there. The other matter to be kept in mind is that the places become a magnet for tourists like HRH the Queen and me among a thousand others.

Gonpachi also achieved fame as a scene from the movie Kill Bill was shot in the restaurant. Anyway, we were handed a map by the hotel concierge a reservation was made and we set out walking to the restaurant some 15 minutes away. We were soon hopelessly lost. No street names, no road signs, nothing. We were really lost. Then, HRH the Queen started accosting passersby who she believed had an intelligent look and would understand English and asked them how to get to the restaurant. Very friendly people, every one of them, but equally, every one of them was hopeless at giving us any directions. Tempers flared. I cursed Japan, Japanese, and the fucking script. Soon we leapt into a taxi and said Gonpachi. Eureka!!! taxi driver knew it and we were on our way. Of course we reached, only problem was it was another branch of Gonpachi from the one we originally wanted to go to. Paid for the cab by card, a large sum of money.

The restaurant was large, crowded and flying. Disconcertingly the staff was multiracial, an Asian, three Africans, a Caucasian manager and a few Caucasian waiters, blond and blue eyed. The place was an absolute tourist trap. I don’t believe there was a single Tokyoite there, unless they were entertaining foreigners. 

We ordered a beer and Sake for the Queen and some food. Chicken Karaage [basically Chicken Pakoras – excellent] Prawn Tempura, Shredded Squid [horrible, chewy think MRF Tyres] Belly of Tuna Grilled [excellent] Chicken Thigh Yakitori [good].

Sake - cold

Chicken Karaage

Shredded Squid

Prawn Tempura

Grilled Tuna Belly

Chicken Thigh Yakitori

We came away disappointed. Lots of questions in my mind. Both of us were disturbed.

That night we slept like the proverbial babies. We woke 12 hours later at 9 am. Thoroughly refreshed, and in far better moods we set about exploring Tokyo.

I am sure that you must have read in food magazines as well as seen a TV show or two of how the best food in Tokyo is below the railway tracks, the drinking joints, the smoky Yakitori, the delicious bowls of noodle. Well, during our meanderings we came across a place that fit the bill. By co-incidence it was another Izakaya, totally unknown, with no entry on the internet [shocking] called Kayoi-Ji. It was under the railway lines, so that box was checked. We went in made a reservation for later in the evening.

On reaching we were welcomed by the friendly waiter who had taken our reservation. Up we went and were seated Japanese style. Beer and Sake was ordered and we looked at the menu. Some explanations in English were provided. We set about ordering. The food was far far better than the horrid Gonpachi. The service was friendly and we had a really nice evening. Unlike Gonpachi, this Izakaya seemed to have mostly locals and as far as I could see, we were the only tourists there. Surely a good sign.

A free Amuse Bouche. Horrible. It had a horrid slime like sauce. No taste but off putting mouth feel

Boiled Edamame Beans

A most unusual dish was stewed Radish. Simply stewed and dressed with a sauce that was like Hot and Sour Soup, it was thick and had Egg in it. Quite nice. I was told by HRH the Queen of Kutch, who knows everything, that Radish is good for the blood. I ate a lot of Radish. Jolly good.

Yakitori- Clockwise from the bottom - Pork Belly, Chicken Liver, Chicken Skin, Chicken thigh and cartilige and lastly Chicken wings.

Stewed Radish. Looks really wierd.

Japanese omlette - Tamagoyaki

Sausages

Deep fried Chicken kebabs. UFO  an unidentified fried object

After the first two evenings we decided no more izakayas for us as they are by and large variations of one another and have similar food. But, I would definitely recommend an izakaya or two for a general introduction to Japan and Japanese food.

Tokyo first impressions.

Now for some impressions on Tokyo.

There is, as always, an explanatory note. All these are my observations based on personal experience, but with ill informed biases and prejudices, strong opinions often without justification all done with very little study and with a very limited knowledge of the city, country and culture, so, help me God!

We have never been to Japan. A few weeks ago we had met our friend Mr. A A - who faithful readers with top class memories will recall from my post on Bandra Farmers Market – who had just been to Japan. He had a load of some very useful information that he gave us. So armed with his information, a Fodors guide book and the trusty internet we set about making plans. Then our Bengali from Chennai went to Japan on work and came back with some information.  

The places that you must visit are Tokyo and Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan and culturally very rich. After those you can choose from the other Japanese cities, many go to Hakone, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nara and Matsumotu etc etc. We added Osaka to the list simply because Kyoto has no airport, so either you get a train back to Tokyo to exit Japan or go to Osaka a short train ride away. We chose Osaka.

If you are planning to travel by train, yes the Bullet Train we were all enamoured by when in school, then you must buy a Japan Rail pass. Train travel in Japan is expensive. This pass makes sense. We have used it extensively on local trains within Tokyo. We will soon use it on our train rides to Kyoto and then to Osaka.

Landing in Tokyo and navigating our way thru the airport to our hotel was amazingly easy. The signage is decent and people generally speak English and are damn helpful. We went to a Japan Rail [JR] counter got seats on the Narita Express [free, rather included in JR Pass, ordinarily 4650 Yen per person] and chugged into Tokyo Station. You could take an Airport Limo Bus which is about 3000 Yen or an ordinary train that is 1500 Yen, but those are slower. A cab costs about 16,000 Yen!!! From Tokyo Station our hotel was a short cab ride away. I paid for the cab with my credit card. All cabs take credit cards. Cabs are excellent, much better than a London Taxi but are staggeringly expensive. The base fare is 730 Yen for 2 Km and 90 Yen per 280 meters thereafter. 1 yen about 0.60 paise so 730 Yen is Rs. 420!!

Tokyo is a nice city. It is incredibly clean, tidy, neat and the air quality is excellent. This means you get great sun light, things look more sparkly than normal and you get good photos. Transportation in Tokyo is very good. You have a huge number of train/subway/metro operators [many privately owned], you have busses and you have the lovely taxis. The streets have excellent footpaths and walking is a pleasure.

A statue in Ueno Park

Ueno Park

Pagoda in Ueno Park

While all that is great, there is one huge problem. Not a single street map is accurate. Not a single address makes any sense. Buildings have no names, streets have no names, buildings have no numbers and generally no one knows where anything is. Boss directions and addresses in Tokyo are really fucked up. Most people run around with GPS on their phones. Things are really bad as far as directions are concerned. You are continually lost.

To make matters worse, you have virtually no signage in English, more correctly, in Roman [the script not the language]. I realise that language is not an issue, the script is the real issue. Permit me to vent a bit. Whether you are in Munich Germany, or Florence Italy or Barcelona Spain or Paris France, a street sign saying Viktualienmarkt in Munich or Duomo in Florence or Las Ramblas in Spain or Champs Elysees in Paris can be read by you. You may not know how to speak German, Italian, Spanish or French, but the script is all Roman. You can look at your map locate Champs Elysees and figure out where you are. Japanese is incomprehensible. You cannot fucking read it, much less understand it. So even if you have a map [assuming it was accurate] you have no idea what is on the map and what is on the street sign. It is a huge problem.

Now extend this to shops and restaurants. You have no clue of anything! What I am going to tell you is God’s truth. Thankfully we are not Jains. One day we were looking for a place to have lunch. We entered a restaurant, naturally no English menu, no one can speak a word of the Queens English. So we looked at the pictures of food on the wall pointed out and ate what was served. The punch line is that the restaurant was a Chinese restaurant!!! We had no clue as where or what we were eating. Only when we tasted the food did we realise that this was Chinese food because the flavour profiles were Chinese. 

I know that Japanese are big on music. So I walked into a CD shop, a very large one. It was totally hopeless. There were thousands of CD’s and placed on the shelves with the titles on the spine of the CD in Japanese! Unless I took each CD out of the rack I had no clue as to what the CD was. No way was I going to be doing that. I had my sanity to worry about!

Yes Japan is expensive. Generally it is much more expensive than anywhere else I have been to. A glass of beer in an ordinary bar will set you back by at least 600 to 700 Yen that is Rs 350 to Rs 400. I am talking about a place like Mondegar and the like. At five stars you could go to 800 Yen to 1000 Yen, easily, that is Rs 460 to Rs 570. Most things are really expensive.

As I said, the city is nice, but I have mixed feelings. It is simply too alien for us to enjoy. There is just too much hype and myth and legend written about Japan. Frankly it is a really difficult place to experience without a guide. We did okay, but, I would really not recommend Japan to visit on holiday. You miss and loose out more than you take in and after paying all that money, I am really not sure you should come here. This is from the perspective as an individual tourist. If you are someone who likes guides, guided tours then Japan may be more fun, but still as expensive. Alas, we are independents, so we have to face our own problems.

Mind you that we have travelled extensively even to China where there is no Roman. But we have never felt so lost and out of sync.

Frankly, from my perspective, this has so far been a waste a very very big waste. I have a few more days to go.

Japan is over-hyped, over-exaggerated, over mystified, over legendified, over intellectualised, and, alas, I am over there!