Address: Asagi Building 1F, 6-4-13, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0061
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One more from the vaults. As I’m writing this in December 2013, the big news of the Michelin-starred tempura world is that 3-star 7chome Kyoboshi has been downgraded to 2-stars for the 2014 Guide.
After two great meals at RyuGin and Tapas Molecular Bar, I decided to try a good tempura place. I had first walked into Asagi the day before, but the counter was completely full with businessmen during the lunch service, and Asagi-san told me to come back the next day. Asagi, his name-sake restaurant, is located in a narrow alley behind Ginza that I would have had a hard time finding without Google Maps. Asagi-san has been frying tempura for more than 40-years, and evidently the restaurant has flourished, because Asagi-san owns the entire building in which his restaurant is located. The small counter seats 8, and Asagi-san’s amiable wife serves as waitress.
When I arrived on Thursday, in stark contrast to the day before, I was the only diner there for lunch service. Throughout the meal, Asagi-san prepared all the ingredients in front of me, and he explained that since I was visiting in summer, it was a uniquely difficult time for tempura. Summer’s high humidity makes it difficult for the batter to stick, therefore he changes the batter composition with each season. When my spoken Japanglish failed, I used Google translate on my phone to translate my queries. For a very reasonable price (around 8,000 yen), I could pick the mind of the tempura master for the duration of my entire meal.
While it was a very high quality tempura meal, I learnt gradually through the meal that tempura as a category of food leaves me cold. I did not react to the food viscerally, nor did the virtuosity of frying Asagi-san demonstrated translate into something that I would crave and remember long in the memory. I’m not entirely sure I could differentiate properly between the high-end tempura of Asagi-san, and some of the cookie-cutter tempura I’ve enjoyed in Singapore and the States. Asagi-san’s was notably not greasy, but the rest of the differences were so subtle I might be imagining them.
Notable write-ups:
Rating: 15/20
Memory: Tendon with Rice, a simple cold Dessert
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The narrow Ginza alleyway in which Asagi is found
Asagi’s nondescript entrance
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Lunch service
Interior
Asagi-san prepares the batter. (tempura starts with a cold batter)
… and the oil
Prawn (4/5)
Ika (Squid) (3.75/5)
Whitefish (4/5)
“Mise-en-scene”
Prawn heads (5/5)
The previous dishes had lacked a savory element, the prawn heads here tasted like the South-east Asian anchovies, ikan bilis.
Ayu (4.5/5)
The slightly-bitter melon taste of the ayu head was again evident. I first had ayu at RyuGin a couple of days ago.
Beans (3.5/5)
To stick the two beans together, Asagi-san used a toothpick, and laconically swirled them around in his tempura vat of oil for about 20-30 seconds.
Virtuosity comes from sticking two discrete objects together
Eggplant (3.5/5)
Young and green
Sweet potato (4/5)
Underside of sweet potato
Asparagus (3.5/5)
In preparation for the anago, I had a sour-salty prawn paste, and salt.
Anago (4.5/5)
Very good, with prawn paste and salt. Anago became my favorite seafood in Tokyo, having had a revelatory sweet-sauce on it at Sushi Bun at Tsukiji.
Tendon with Rice (5/5)
One of perhaps two dishes which stuck with me in the memory. This tendon was fried as a single agglomerate, which takes a lot of skill on the chef’s part. Drizzled with a sweet-savory sauce, this was absolutely addictive. I could have had three to five bowls of this without question.
Miso
Dessert (5/5)
A most perfect and composed ending to a fried meal. A delicious single scoop of matcha ice cream, with red beans, brown sugar, and jelly.
The remains of the day
Me and Asagi-san
Kenneth Tiong eats 