THE ART OF FRYING

asparagus

ebi - prawn (tokyo bay)

lotusroot

grandmaster flash (fryer!)

Well only the Japanese could make frying an art form. We’re talking about tempura here a restaurant that does only tempura. Kondo is located on the 9th floor of a building in Ginza (many good restaurants in Tokyo are not located on street level, tucked away in tall buildings). We managed to find this restaurant despite the difficulties we have with the Japanese addresses (or lack there of). The restaurant is very small – a counter surrounding the “kitchen” with only 15 seats. The menu is set, and what is served depends upon what the chef can get his hands on. And he is very specific. He hand picks vegetables from small growers in the specific areas they are grown, and his seafood is all hand selected from what is caught in Tokyo Bay only on specific days. And you can taste the difference. Everything is hand prepared in front of you. We sat down and the chefs we peeling prawns that were still moving. All the fish is filleted to order, and all the vegetables are cut and prepared to order. Each item for frying is treated differently – the batter is done differently, the temperature of the woks is monitored and adjusted, and the oil is changed if deemed necessary. The oil by the way is the chef’s own special blend.

Each course is simple – just one item showcased in its perfect batter. The chefs are very focused, the room is very quiet, and then there is the dramatic splash into the oil as 30 prawns go in one after the other. Each piece is served by the chef with chopsticks onto your plate. One by one we ate the following: prawn heads; prawn bodies; an asparagus spear; a green pepper; kisu (?), a white fish; lotus root; eggplant; meigochi (?), a white fish; an onion; sea eel. You could taste the freshness of the produce, and the batters were just amazing – merely a casing for each vegetable or piece of fish.

Kondo really was an experience, and we never thought that we could get so excited about tempura. But we did.