The arm of a Tempura cook


This photo of my arm shows oil spattered burn spots. Hajime at Mashiko joked about an earlier time in his career, when his arm had burned marks which were cause from making Tempura. John said he had a similar experience and made his arm protection by cutting his long sock.
I often make Tempura at home in a regular frying pan, and I hardly ever burn my arm. The pan used at home is shallow, where as at Mashiko, I use a deep fryer. I dropped vegetables with Tempura batter a bit too high above the oil in the fryer from my nervous unsteady hand. This caused the oil to splash burn spots on my arm.
My husband told me that he had seen people’s arms like mine. He thought that the people were drug addicts, as they had burn marks on their arm similar to the ones on my arm. He was surprised to learn that maybe those people where really cooks working at a deep fryer instead of drug addicts like he thought.
I didn’t know that people with drug addiction problem had skin problems. I found some image of arms badly spotted by drug addiction. Hopefully soon I am able to fry Tempura without splashing oil. I should wear long sleeve shirts or cover my arm.
When you see someone with small blisters on one of his/her arms, it may be caused from splash from the deep fryer not from drug addiction.

Useful arm covers, Japanese farmer's arm cover and foot warmer

The photo above shows my potential arm protection.

2 Responses to “The arm of a Tempura cook”

  1. @sushi_pro Says:

    @fumikob you could just change your technique! Lower the battered food to the hot oil until it is just a little bit into the oil, then let go. If you avoid dropping it into the oil from above you'll also avoid the splash. I'm just sayin…

  2. fumikob Says:

    Unfortunately the business at Mashiko slowed down. I was the newest part-time cook and first to go. The cooking experience at Mashiko was very inspiring. I experimented some menus at Mashiko at home. I especially love skewed smelt Nanban and make it many times for my family.

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