The Japanese dish of battered and deep-fried seafood and vegetables is tempura.
Tempura consists of seafood or vegetables dipped in a light batter and briefly fried in hot oil. Typical ingredients include shrimp, squid, white fish, eggplant, sweet potato, lotus root, shiso leaves, and mushrooms. The batter is deliberately thin, producing a pale, crisp coating rather than the heavier breading associated with many fried foods.
The technique reached Japan through Portuguese contact during the 16th century, particularly around Nagasaki and the Nanban trade. Japanese cooks adapted the method and developed tempura into a distinctive cuisine, often using sesame oil or other oils and carefully controlling batter temperature and frying time.
Tempura is commonly served immediately with tentsuyu dipping sauce and grated daikon, or seasoned with salt. It can also become part of other dishes: tempura soba pairs it with buckwheat noodles, tendon serves it over rice, and tempura udon places it with udon soup. Karaage and tonkatsu are different fried foods: karaage is usually flour-coated meat, while tonkatsu is breaded pork.