Shrimp by Yvette Florio Lane

Author:Yvette Florio Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

The Brazilian festival food caruru.

Shrimp ceviche marries shrimp and tropical flavours in a cool salad.

But to return to ebi tempura – batter-coated, deep-fried shrimp – its name, its ingredients and its technique all reveal its mixed heritage. When Jesuit missionaries arrived in Japan after 1549, they had to work hard to overcome the bad impression left behind by earlier compatriots. The Japanese had been less than impressed by their previous European guests, whom they found ill-mannered and crude. The missionaries ended up getting themselves thrown out anyway, along with all other Westerners (with the exception of a few Dutch traders) in 1638. This time, the Japanese believed the Jesuits had overstepped politically, and they feared an invasion by the Spanish. Foreigners were barred for more than two centuries after that. Although the Japanese sent the missionaries packing, they held on to their recipe for the batter-fried shrimp they ate at their Embertide ‘fish meals’. In the Catholic calendar, Embertide occurs four times each year, or, in Latin, quatour tempora. The Japanese thought they could improve on the recipe, though, and they did. They changed the oil, using a lighter blend. They experimented with temperatures. They thinned the batter. They refined the frying technique. They renamed it ebi tempura – shrimp tempura. It has become one of the most renowned dishes in the world and deservedly so. And it is an excellent example of a fusion of flavours and techniques that arrives at something altogether new.3 While it is of two places originally, and then one, it has become so universally loved and eaten that it has almost transcended nationality. Shrimp tempura can now be eaten almost anywhere in the world. It is the dish that is served to finicky toddlers and grandparents because it does not seem too ‘foreign’ or strange.

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