You might know tempura as a classic Japanese dish, consisting of battered and deep-fried meat or vegetables like what you can find at all of your favorite restaurants. At Sushi Hana’s Japanese restaurant in Bothell, you can enjoy tempura in the form of our tempura don, our tempura roll, or our veggie tempura roll. But what is the story behind tempura, exactly? The answer may surprise you.
Consider the word “tempura”, first of all. This is not a word that can be clearly written in the Japanese language. This is because tempura was actually introduced to Japan at some point in the sixteenth century, when Portuguese missionaries first arrived in the country. Though the facts are unclear, it is thought that the name was derived from the Portuguese word “tempero”, which translates to “condiment” or “seasoning”. You can still find a dish very much akin to the Japanese tempura in Portugal, where it goes under the name peixinhos da horta.