I’m not being stingy here—even small shrimp look impressive when you stretch them out straight. (It’s not because I couldn’t buy the $10 per pack shrimp, I promise!)

Peel the shells and remove the legs. I also peel off the part near the index finger because it can be tough and hurt when eating.

Cut the tip of the tail off at an angle. If you leave moisture here, the oil will splatter and can burn you.

Make a slit along the back and remove the vein.

Stretch the shrimp out.

Make 3 to 5 shallow diagonal cuts (about 1/8 to 1/6 inch deep, or 3–4 mm) along the belly, depending on the size of the shrimp. For this shrimp, I made 3 cuts.

After making the cuts, press down on the back of the shrimp with your thumb until you hear little pops. This breaks the muscles that cause curling, so the shrimp will stay straight when fried.

[Extra step] If your shrimp still curl, gently pull and stretch them out.

[Extra step] Try holding the shrimp with both hands and stretching it firmly. Just be careful not to tear it.

Coat the shrimp in flour, then dip in tempura batter. The batter should be a little thinner than pancake batter—this helps create a light, crispy coating with pretty tempura 'flowers.'

When the shrimp float to the surface, use your hand to flick extra batter onto them (like shaking water off your hands) to create decorative 'flowers.' Fry until the bubbles get smaller and the sound changes—use your senses to judge when they’re done.

When serving shrimp tempura, use other tempura like sweet potato or kabocha squash as a base to make the presentation look nice. Here I used kabocha.

This is how it should look—nice and straight!

For eggplant, make slits about 1/4 inch (5–6 mm) apart from the tip down about two-thirds of the way.

Press the eggplant gently to fan it out. It fries up beautifully and is easy to eat.

Like this! It takes a bit of force.

I forgot to take a photo of the fried result! Oops.

When it comes to tempura, whiting is classic, but I tried making tempura with blackfish (mejina) and it was delicious. Cut into suitable-sized slices and fry.

Blackfish is also great as fried fish, but it was delicious as tempura too! The skin is fine to leave on or remove. It’s not a common fish, but if you get the chance, give it a try!