Tempura

Deep-frying was not a feature of traditional Japanese cuisine. When two Portuguese traders in a Chinese junk were blown by a typhoon onto the shore of a minor island called Tegashima near Kyushu in 1543, they were the first Europeans to set foot in Japan. A contemporary chronicle reports that they sold a musket to a Tegashiman notable, the first firearm acquired and shot by a Japanese. Soon after, other Portuguese brought with them a highly developed vocabulary of fritters. The Japanese lat