Special mix tendon ($14.90++)!
Tanjong Pagar Japanese special mix tendon: assorted tempura (prawn, fish, long bean, eggplant and more) over rice with tare, miso soup on the side. $14.90++.
Lunch at a Tanjong Pagar Japanese restaurant: special mix tendon, $14.90++. ๐
What was in the bowl:
- Assorted tempura piled over rice: prawn (tail up), white fish, a long bean (sasagi), eggplant, and more, the battered pieces stacked over the rice
- Tare drizzle: the sweet-soy sauce glazing the tempura
- Miso soup on the side, in the lacquer cup
Tendon (ๅคฉไธผ) is tempuraโs rice-bowl format: the battered pieces stacked over rice and dressed with the sweet-soy tare so the batter bottoms soak while the tops stay crisp. The architecture matters, the pieces lean upright against each other rather than lying flat, so steam escapes and nothing goes soggy before you reach it.
The โspecial mixโ is the everything-bowl: a wider assortment than the standard prawn tendon, here covering seafood (prawn, fish), vegetables (long bean, eggplant) and the works. The pleasure is the variety of textures, the snap of the prawn, the flake of the fish, the soft eggplant under its crisp shell, each batter-fried to blonde and glazed with the same tare.
The batter is the craft: proper tempura batter is mixed cold, barely combined and used immediately, so it fries into a lacy, light crust rather than a thick bready one. Done right it stays crisp under the tare for the first several minutes, which is why you eat tendon promptly rather than letting it sit.
At $14.90++ for a loaded assorted tendon at a Tanjong Pagar Japanese restaurant, this is fair mid-tier pricing, below the dedicated tempura specialists.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. ๐๐๐ผ The variety of crisp tempura over the tare-glazed rice was the standout. Would re-order.
