Kakiage (かき揚げ, mixed-vegetable tempura fritter)

Kakiage looks like the part of tempura that might fall apart just to embarrass you. It won't, if you understand what holds it. Onion, carrot, mitsuba, and sometimes a few small shrimp are cut small, dusted with flour, barely touched with cold batter, then lowered into the oil as one loose disc.

The one detail that decides it is the word loose. Too much batter gives you a heavy pancake, too little leaves the vegetables drifting away like they have appointments elsewhere. Dusting the pieces first gives the batter something to cling to, and keeping the batter cold keeps it light. You're binding, not burying.

Kakiage belongs comfortably to a quick table. Set it beside rice and miso soup, tuck it over soba or udon, or serve one small fritter with salt or tentsuyu, the tempura dipping sauce built from dashi, shōyu, and mirin. The vegetables do the speaking, especially when onion is sweet and mitsuba is glistening fresh. Nothing hidden, no heavy sauce. A clean fry, a little room on the plate, and the dish is honmono without becoming theatrical.