Tentsuyu 天つゆ

Also called tempura dipping sauce, tempura sauce, ten tsuyu

Tempura dipping sauce. Dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar, usually with grated daikon stirred in.

Tentsuyu is the dipping sauce for tempura. The base is dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar, and it comes with grated daikon. Some places add grated ginger, yuzu or sansho.

It used to be much heavier. At Edo-period street stalls, tempura came on skewers and everyone dipped into one shared pot of sweet, salty, thick sauce, with daikon on the side. Putting that on a bowl of rice as fast food is said to be how tendon started.

The lighter dashi style comes from Kansai. It spread east after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake mixed the two food cultures, and now even Tokyo tempura counters serve it in its own little cup, the tonsui.

Salt is the other option, and good counters tell you which piece gets which. At Asanuma the tentsuyu tasted lighter than it looked, so the regulars kept asking for more daikon.

See alsoTenchaKuruma-ebi