Cover Tenshima chef Takahiro Shima (Photo: Tenshima)
Tenshima chef Takahiro Shima (Photo: Tenshima)
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At Tenshima, each tempura course by chef Takahiro Shima is elegantly simple, yet painstakingly prepared
On any given night at Tenshima, you might find chef Takahiro Shima behind the Japanese cypress counter, dipping, in a light batter, sea bream and sweet potato just for a second, before hot oil greets them with a singing sizzle. Simple. Effortless. Almost as if you could do it too. But Shima’s deft hands and assured manouevres conceal the years of training that has made his eponymous restaurant a hit among Singaporean gourmands.
That’s kodawari for you, the Japanese concept of the relentless, even obsessive pursuit of perfection; the best possible outcome. At Tenshima, the idea breathes in each minute detail, from the mikageishi granite and washi paper motifs to the preparation of lightly-fried parcels of seasonal ingredients. With the right cut and the right amount of salt, Shima removes questionable piscine odours from his fish. Abalone simmers in a light kombu dashi with daikon, shoyu, sake and sugar for five hours.
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Ebi tempura
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And in what seems like the most indulgent spa day ever given to a vegetable, sweet potatoes steam for six or seven hours before being dry-aged for two days. Then, and only then, can they be finally fried. But if the clamouring praise for the result—accompanied by milk ice cream as a coda to a generously-portioned meal—the labour is well worth it.
Such ritualistic preparation should come to no surprise, given Shima’s sixteen years of training, some of which were spent at other big-ticket tempura hotspots in Singapore, including the local outpost of Tokyo’s Ginza Tenharu and Tentsuru at The St. Regis Singapore. As a result, the same attention to detail is paid to the tempura itself: low-gluten flour, egg yolks, ice cubes and water mix to create a thin batter, which will ever so gently coat a slice of fish before it is laid into a copper pot of sunflower oil with a dramatic sizzle. It’s not as simple as it looks: temperature fluctuations determine slight tweaks to the batter recipe. Over time, gluten strands also lengthen and resist the light texture that Shima demands, so he makes a new batch every half-hour.
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Above Tenshima seasonal soup
Above Tenshima uni atop seaweed tempura
Tenshima seasonal soup
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The result, of course, is a culinary odyssey. There are showstopping moments. In one moment of bravado, uni and caviar crown a thin sheet of tempura seaweed, an essay in juxtapositions: crisp and soft, salty and umami. But even that is guided by the maxim of a simple purity that is by no means simple to achieve. It’s there in the tiger prawns, shark’s fin, and A5 Miyazaki Wagyu which arrive before you, adorned only by a thin batter, shattering at the suggestion of your teeth, the aroma of each ingredient’s natural flavour wafting up your nose.
It is Shima’s understanding of this maxim that sets Tenshima out as an altar at the temple of tempura.
Credits
Images: Tenshima
Ethan Kan was Tatler Singapore’s dining writer.
