Home / January

A little reason to celebrate

National Tempura Day

Food · January 7

A day for tempura, the Japanese style of frying seafood and vegetables in a light, crisp batter, and for the ways people enjoy it at home or out.

National Tempura Day falls on Thursday, January 7, 2027. That is 72 days away.

Tempura is a Japanese way of frying food in a thin, pale batter. Shrimp is the best known version, but sweet potato, eggplant, mushrooms, green beans and shiso leaves all take to it well.

The batter is the whole trick. It is usually just flour, egg and very cold water, mixed only briefly so it stays a little lumpy. Cooks keep it cold and stir it as little as possible, because a smooth, overworked batter fries up heavy instead of lacy. The result should shatter when you bite it and leave the food inside tasting mostly like itself.

In restaurants, tempura often arrives on a paper sheet that catches the extra oil. It may come with a small bowl of dipping sauce made from dashi, soy sauce and mirin, sometimes with grated daikon radish stirred in. Some people skip the sauce and use a pinch of salt instead. Tempura also turns up resting on bowls of rice or noodles, where the coating softens slightly and soaks up the broth.

At home, the main challenge is timing. Tempura is at its best within minutes of leaving the oil, so it tends to be cooked in small batches and eaten as it comes out, with everyone standing a bit closer to the stove than usual.

A plate of mixed vegetable tempura is a good way to discover which ones you like best. Sweet potato is often a quiet favorite.

Ways to celebrate

• Order a mixed vegetable and shrimp tempura plate at a local Japanese restaurant.
• Try tempura over a bowl of udon or soba noodles.
• Compare dipping tempura in sauce with sprinkling it with salt.
• Fry a small batch of vegetable tempura at home with an adult supervising.
• Share which vegetable you think makes the best tempura.

Dates

All national days on January 7

Also on January 7

• National Bobblehead Day
• Old Rock Day

Categories: Food days