January 05, 2010
tempura sifu
We went to the fancy tempura bar here in LA at the Kyoto Grand hotel, where they sit you at the bar and the tempura master brings you morsel after morsel.
The master barked orders at the waiters just like in the sushi bar scene with Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill, which we found entirely charming in its absurdity. We got a bit of sashimi and some jellyfish and mountain vegetable in sesame sauce to start, and then the parade of fried goodness began. There was a lemon wedge and some green tea salt to dip in, which I rather enjoyed as an occasional break from the delicious ponzu with daikon.
The best of them were the astonishingly tender squid and the delectable orange roughy with green onion, though I enjoyed them all, from the asparagus to the eggplant to the lotus root to the crab claw to the unagi to the shiitake. Nom nom.