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Apparently, long cooking chopsticks aren’t always necessary when cooking deep-fried tempura morsels. Japanese Twitter user @Yuku1991 recently let the world know about his favorite restaurant, a tempura joint called Tenkin that’s located in front of Hamamatsu Station in Shizuoka Prefecture. On a recent visit, he filmed Tenkin’s owner/chef making tempura by dunking his bare hand into a pot of sizzling cooking oil.
The chef has a bowl of egg yolks in his left hand. One after another, he slides a yolk into his right hand, lowers it into a separate bowl of tempura batter and then inserts the yolk, plus his fingers, into a pan of boiling oil (top photo), before nonchalantly repeating the process with the next egg.
Multiple commenters wondered if maybe the chef was only able to do this because he’d already lost all feeling in his right hand, but Twitter user @taiyakiudon offered another, less grizzly explanation.
@taiyakiudon believes this is an example of the Leidenfrost effect, named after 18th century scientist Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost. When a liquid is close to another substance that’s much hotter than the liquid’s boiling point, a vapor is produced that causes an insulating effect. Since the chef’s hand is coated with the comparatively cold batter, his skin isn’t damaged by its brief dip in pan of boiling oil.
That said, this still isn’t something you should try at home. There’s a limit to how long that batter is going to keep your hand safe, so unless you’ve got the muscle memory and experience for the speedy and precise movements Tenkin’s chef is making, you’ll want to use cooking chopsticks, tongs, or some other substitute for your fleshy digits. It’s also worth pointing out that the chef only appears to be engaging in bare-knuckled cooking for the initial part of the cooking process, as we don’t see him using his bare hands to extract any ready-to-eat pieces of tempura.
Oh, and if you’re worried that the chef’s unorthodox cooking method is a sign that he can’t be bothered to cook tempura the “right” way, the photo of the restaurant’s marque tendon, a tempura bowl with shrimp and fish as well as egg, suggests otherwise, as it appears to be cooked to perfection.
Tt’s only 1,000 yen too, which is a great price, especially when you consider that you get a thrilling, burn-defying show too.
Restaurant information
Tenkin / 天錦
Address: Shizuoka-ken, Hamamatsu-shi, Naka-ku, Tamachi 325-29
静岡県浜松市中区田町325-29
Open 11 a.m.-1:20 p.m., 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Closed Wednesdays
Source: Twitter/@Yuku1991 via Hachima Kiko
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© SoraNews24
5 Comments
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Serrano
"I've tried lying on a bed of nails myself. It doesn't feel nice, but as long as you lay down slowly, and make sure to spread your weight over a wide area, it won't break your skin."
I'll stick with my good ol' futon, thanks, lol
ebisen
He doesn't feel a thing. People have inserted (wet) fingers into molten lead without even feeling the heat. Look it up on youtube.
Nadège
He is damaging his hand on long terme. He is damaging the skin.
Strangerland
That's how people can lick red-hot pieces of metal - they just have to make sure they have enough saliva on their tongue.
When I was in university, a traveling freak show came, where they did things like lying on a bed of nails, licking red-hot irons, and a bunch of other things. Our physics professor also came, and the next day in class she explained how a lot of it worked. Since then, I've tried lying on a bed of nails myself. It doesn't feel nice, but as long as you lay down slowly, and make sure to spread your weight over a wide area, it won't break your skin.
Serrano
"Twitter user @taiyakiudon offered another, less grizzly explanation.
@taiyakiudon believes this is an example of the Leidenfrost effect, named after 18th century scientist Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost. When a liquid is close to another substance that’s much hotter than the liquid’s boiling point, a vapor is produced that causes an insulating effect. Since the chef’s hand is coated with the comparatively cold batter, his skin isn’t damaged by its brief dip in pan of boiling oil."
So he isn't dipping his bare fingers into that hot oil, they're coated with batter. The headline is clickbait, haha
Interesting owner/chef, would like to try his cooking. Not try cooking like him though, haha