Tempura in Taiwan

Sometimes, it is difficult to tell what the food is by its name. At least, for tempura in Taiwan, it can refer to at least three different things.

• In Japanese restaurants: and only in Japanese restaurants, tempura is a dish of deep fried seafood and vegetables. 
• As a food: tempura is a mix of fish paste, corn starch, and other flavoring or seasoning, then pre-fried before sold in markets. Tempura is usually served deep-fried or boiled as part of the following dish.
• As a dish: boiled tempura served with white carrot, oily bean curd, pig's blood cake (yes, the one on the top of Reuters' "Travel Picks: 10 of world's most unusual foods" list), and Black Wheel (similar to tempura, fish paste with vegetables, eggs and seasoning).

Tempura as a dish

Tempura is served topped with source. The source differs from stand to stand and decides the taste of tempura. The most common ingredients of the source is soy sauce, sweet hot sauce, tomato ketchup, ground pepper...and etc. But again, it differs.

After finishing tempura and other food in the "tempura dish", people usually add soup (actually is the water used to boil all the tempura, white carrot....) to the left source and have it as our after-meal soup. (remember? Chinese have soup AFTER meals)

One of the must-try street foods in Taiwan, it is widely available in night markets or the corners of streets. 

Street price:

Small (as above picture): USD$1-1.5

Large: USD$1.8-2.5