254 – On Tempura Throwbacks: Cube 8

Metro Manila has been under general community quarantine status (GCQ) for almost two months now, after the more stringent enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was lifted in June. Incidentally, the move to GCQ triggered a spike of Covid-19 cases in the country – with a good majority coming from the national capital. People are advised to stay home and avoid going to public places unless necessary, such as supply runs.

Given the threat of Covid-19 and the lack of new restaurants to review, I’ve resorted to checking out my Instagram archive for old image posts and stories I can turn to actual entries. Fortunately, I found sufficient content which includes this one; very timely as I am craving for prawn tempura as I am typing this! Looking at it now, it never crossed my mind that I had already tried a lot of tempura variants unintentionally over the years!

However, there’s a plot twist to this craving: I’m allergic to seafood, which manifests as itching on my lower extremities. I usually take non-drowsy anti-histamines so I don’t fall asleep after, which thankfully work. Apparently, it runs on Dad’s side of the family – and we inherited those allergies.

I’ll stop here to present you nine tempura dishes I tried over the years.

TOP ROW
1. Tempura Duo with Yang Chow Rice, Tokyo Tempura / Hen Lin
2. Prawn and Kani Tempura Bento Meal, Tokyo Tokyo
3. Sho Tempura with Hainanese Rice, Tokyo Tempura / Paotsin

MIDDLE ROW
4. All-Star Teishoku Set, Tenya
5. Tempura Soba, Sandaime
6. Tendon, Yutaka Izakaya

BOTTOM ROW
7. Kohaku Tendon, Tendon Kohaku
8. Vegetable Tendon, Tendon Kohaku
9. Kohaku Tendon, Tendon Kohaku

Until the next post, bon appetit!