1st meal of New Year 2019: Tempura don (NT$935)!
A Taipei New Year's Day brunch: a premium tempura don with prawns, white fish and assorted vegetable tempura over rice with sweet-soy tare. NT$935.
The first proper sit-down meal of 2019 with BB, a tempura don at a Taiwanese-Japanese restaurant in Taipei: NT$935 (around SGD$42). πΉπΌπ€π
What we had:
- Premium tempura don: assorted tempura over rice with sweet-soy tare, miso soup and pickled radish on the side
A tempura don is a lovely way to start a new year, and this was a generous, premium one. The batter was the test, and they nailed it: light, airy and shatteringly crisp, the kind that comes from cold batter hitting hot oil for just the right time, so each piece had a hollow golden shell rather than a heavy, greasy coat.
Two big prawns sat on top, tails poking out and still sweet and snappy inside, with a piece of flaky white fish alongside. The vegetable tempura filled it out beautifully: pumpkin turned sweet and roasty under its crisp shell, eggplant went silky inside, and sweet potato had that slow, earthy sweetness. A drizzle of sweet-soy tare ran over everything and down into the rice, which soaked it all up.
A warming miso soup and a little pickled radish rounded it off. Unhurried, well made, and a happy first meal of the year.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. πππΌ Light, crispy tempura over tare-soaked rice, a great first meal of 2019. Would return.
