Tempura

Due to an unfortunate misspelling in David Crook's "Drive to Keep Artwork in Scotland Falls Short" (Dec. 24), one might get the false impression that Mantegna's "Adoration of the Magi" would be delicious with sushi and green tea. The correct spelling of the paint is tempera . Without that knowledge we might assume that as well as being a great painter, Mantegna also had a gift for Nippon ryori. ROBERT LEVIN Covina

In Los Angeles, your next great meal could be anywhere, from a pop-up installed in an art gallery to the truck parked outside the place where you get coffee in the morning. If you've been here awhile, you almost expect your bliss to come from that place in the mini-mall next to the dry cleaners. But in the rush to quantify banh mi specialists and loncheros , the Japanese supermarket food court - that bastion of quick-service sushi and reliable fried pork, omelet rice with ketchup and octopus fritters squirted with Kewpie mayonnaise and sprinkled with dried bonito shavings - is often overlooked.

  Shishito peppers tempura Total time: 30 minutes Servings: 4 Note: You can serve the shishito peppers with salt or with a tempura dipping sauce. This recipe is also good with sugar snap peas. This recipe requires a 4- to 5-quart pot, preferably cast iron, or a tempura frying pan. 20 whole shishito peppers 11/4 cups cake flour 2 tablespoons cornstarch, more if needed 1 cup ice cold water 1 egg Canola, peanut or corn oil, for frying Dipping sauce, for serving 1. Prepare the peppers: Cut a small slit along the length of one of the peppers, preferably running along a rib. Cut a small crosswise slit along the top of the lengthwise slit to form a "T" shape.

At the Lazy Ox Canteen on the edge of Little Tokyo, the happy clamor of downtown denizens tucking into chef Josef Centeno's Ox burgers, crispy pig's ears and brick-roasted mussels leaks out the door into the street. But Lazy Ox is no longer the only restaurant on the block. Next door is a second restaurant from Centeno's partner Michael Cardenas. By day, Cardenas is still an integral part of Innovative Dining Group (IDG), founders of Sushi Roku, BOA and more. By night, he's the force behind Aburiya Toranoko, the onetime Matsuhisa general manager's take on izakaya , or Japanese pub food, one with a distinctly urban, hip-hop vibe.

It's farmers market day in Santa Monica and I have tempura on my mind. The Japanese farmer carries most of my staples — shishito peppers, burdock, kabocha squash and daikon radish, which I like to grate and put in the dipping sauce; it's like a sauce within the sauce that heats and aids digestion. Across the way, I see a mound of haricots verts. I buy a handful. Next to them are breathtakingly beautiful squash blossoms. I get a dozen. My tote bags fill up quickly. The baby carrots look irresistible too. I love to deep-fry them whole, including the young leaves.

In Los Angeles, your next great meal could be anywhere, from a pop-up installed in an art gallery to the truck parked outside the place where you get coffee in the morning. If you've been here awhile, you almost expect your bliss to come from that place in the mini-mall next to the dry cleaners. But in the rush to quantify banh mi specialists and loncheros , the Japanese supermarket food court - that bastion of quick-service sushi and reliable fried pork, omelet rice with ketchup and octopus fritters squirted with Kewpie mayonnaise and sprinkled with dried bonito shavings - is often overlooked.

At the Lazy Ox Canteen on the edge of Little Tokyo, the happy clamor of downtown denizens tucking into chef Josef Centeno's Ox burgers, crispy pig's ears and brick-roasted mussels leaks out the door into the street. But Lazy Ox is no longer the only restaurant on the block. Next door is a second restaurant from Centeno's partner Michael Cardenas. By day, Cardenas is still an integral part of Innovative Dining Group (IDG), founders of Sushi Roku, BOA and more. By night, he's the force behind Aburiya Toranoko, the onetime Matsuhisa general manager's take on izakaya , or Japanese pub food, one with a distinctly urban, hip-hop vibe.

Oumi Sasaya Location: 2383 Lomita Blvd., Suite 101, Lomita, (310) 530-4661 (reservations not accepted), http://www.oumisasaya.com . Price: Udon plates and soups, $7.50 to $12; udon-suki, $18 to $28; dinner entrees, $5.50 to $14; salads and sides, $1.20 to $9.50. Best dishes : Sesame chicken tempura udon, tororo udon with beef and dou ban jiang , curry udon soup with shrimp and mochi tempura, udon- suki , beef and vegetable tagine.

I am an avid follower of your section and enjoy your opinions/ideas very much. However, the very first four words, "sticky short-grained rice," in the last paragraph of Barbara Hansen's article ("Ordering off the Menu," March 31) struck me funny, and I would like to introduce a Japanese word, gohan, to you. Gohan is that "sticky short-grained rice" and it is the essential ingredient in Japanese meals. My wish is that gohan becomes a common term, like teriyaki and tempura. Paul Miki Los Feliz

Overrated: cellphones, texting, BlackBerrys, iPhones, etc. Look to your right or left. There is a marvelous new piece of technology right there -- it's called a live human being. When you talk with them, you can see their mouths move and watch their eyes show signs of warmth or emotion. And (usually) there are no monthly fees! Terry Dunn Santa Monica Overrated: Buying gas at Costco. You've seen the lines, 10, sometimes 15 cars deep to get to the Costco pump. But are the savings really worth more than 30 minutes of your life -- what with either idling your car or stopping and starting every seven minutes.

It's farmers market day in Santa Monica and I have tempura on my mind. The Japanese farmer carries most of my staples — shishito peppers, burdock, kabocha squash and daikon radish, which I like to grate and put in the dipping sauce; it's like a sauce within the sauce that heats and aids digestion. Across the way, I see a mound of haricots verts. I buy a handful. Next to them are breathtakingly beautiful squash blossoms. I get a dozen. My tote bags fill up quickly. The baby carrots look irresistible too. I love to deep-fry them whole, including the young leaves.

  Shishito peppers tempura Total time: 30 minutes Servings: 4 Note: You can serve the shishito peppers with salt or with a tempura dipping sauce. This recipe is also good with sugar snap peas. This recipe requires a 4- to 5-quart pot, preferably cast iron, or a tempura frying pan. 20 whole shishito peppers 11/4 cups cake flour 2 tablespoons cornstarch, more if needed 1 cup ice cold water 1 egg Canola, peanut or corn oil, for frying Dipping sauce, for serving 1. Prepare the peppers: Cut a small slit along the length of one of the peppers, preferably running along a rib. Cut a small crosswise slit along the top of the lengthwise slit to form a "T" shape.

Oumi Sasaya Location: 2383 Lomita Blvd., Suite 101, Lomita, (310) 530-4661 (reservations not accepted), http://www.oumisasaya.com . Price: Udon plates and soups, $7.50 to $12; udon-suki, $18 to $28; dinner entrees, $5.50 to $14; salads and sides, $1.20 to $9.50. Best dishes : Sesame chicken tempura udon, tororo udon with beef and dou ban jiang , curry udon soup with shrimp and mochi tempura, udon- suki , beef and vegetable tagine.

A queue of naked noodles waits to be dressed with delicate daikon sprouts, quivering poached eggs and oil-slicked strips of blackened bell pepper. Ingredients are plucked from bowls, plates, bottles and jars and laid onto the loose nests of udon, each shard of seaweed and ring of green onion in its right place. Lomita's Oumi Sasaya is a noodle house of seemingly effortless elegance, minimalism maximized to the fullest. It's a feat achieved in the details. Here, waitresses pour pitchers of broth with one hand guarding against even the smallest splash, and hourglasses accompany orders of hot sake, which aren't to be sipped until the last grain of sand tumbles down to the dune below.

Tempura nuggets (satsuma-age) Total time: About 1 hour Servings: 4 Note: You can use a variety of vegetables for making satsuma-age: minced burdock; cooked sweet potato; lotus root; chopped shiso leaves; chopped onions; hydrated, chopped dried shiitake mushrooms. Keep the vegetables to half the weight of the fish paste. Potato starch is available at well-stocked grocery stores as well as at Asian markets. Fresh yuzu are available at select Japanese markets when in season.

When I go back to Japan, some people assume that I head straight for sushi bars. But my favorite pastime is making pilgrimages to artisanal soba shops. If there is one food I love with a passion, it is soba, the thin, earthy-looking buckwheat noodles. I enjoy their natural sweet flavor and nutty aroma and eat them for lunch three or four times a week, and sometimes for dinner too. I'm not the only one who places soba on such a high pedestal. "Soba is the best Japanese food there is," my friend Noritoshi Kanai said to me the other day. An active 86 years, he has a breakfast ritual that consists of a bowl of soba seven days a week, surpassing even my soba consumption.

One way to save money in Japan is to eat at noodle stalls. Here in the Southland, the Mishima chain serves those same noodle dishes--and a lot more. At the Studio City branch, adorned with Japanese lacquered pottery set in wall niches, you sit either on wood slat chairs or more comfortable banquettes. You might start with boiled soybeans (edamame), which you pop out of the pods and into your mouth, or goma ae, snappy green beans covered with sesame seeds. There's also shrimp or vegetable tempura, and a mixed tempura that includes nori seaweed.

You need to slide, rather than push or pull, the front door open at Mon Japanese in Tarzana. Then part the noren (hanging fabric panels) to enter into this cozy little neighborhood restaurant. Run by a Japanese family, the restaurant also attracts a family clientele. Grass-cloth walls are lined by booths with paper lanterns hanging above the tables. The L-shaped dining area wraps around the kitchen, leaving only enough room for three tables in the center. The photo on our table advertising their special dinners-for-two didn't look very appetizing, but we ordered the shogun boat for the sake of research.

Overrated: cellphones, texting, BlackBerrys, iPhones, etc. Look to your right or left. There is a marvelous new piece of technology right there -- it's called a live human being. When you talk with them, you can see their mouths move and watch their eyes show signs of warmth or emotion. And (usually) there are no monthly fees! Terry Dunn Santa Monica Overrated: Buying gas at Costco. You've seen the lines, 10, sometimes 15 cars deep to get to the Costco pump. But are the savings really worth more than 30 minutes of your life -- what with either idling your car or stopping and starting every seven minutes.

Hiroshi Komatsu's work is hot and intense. A hundred times a night he plucks food from roiling oil the instant it's ready to serve. When he sets the order on the polished granite counter at his tempura bar, Komatsu, it will always be crisp and light. With baskets of fresh vegetables on display behind him, Komatsu cooks in a handmade copper caldron using a proprietary blend of sesame and vegetable cooking oils, which gives his food a faintly nutty flavor.