Tempura isn’t on the menu at Chinatown’s award-winning Kissa Tanto, even though it damn well should be. It does, however, make an occasional appearance as a special. This is the most recent iteration from co-owner/chef Joël Watanabe. It sees delicately battered and perfectly fried (non-greasy) green onions tossed with togarashi spice and finished with a finely grated blizzard of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
The pieces are tiny and a bit of a cruel trick to chopstick, but if you are dextrous enough to be able to dip them in the supplied dunker of Calabrian chili-spiced ponzu sauce…well, you are the winner of the day’s flavour stakes. Seriously, if you ever hear your server say “tempura” doing the nightly specials recitation, pounce! If you’ve never been to the restaurant before take a good, hard look:
263 E. Pender St. | 778-379-8078 | kissatanto.com