way You can find it in his book In Search of Perfection, from the BBC series of the same name It’s also easily found online † † † So the next time someone threatens to throw you in boiling oil, just tell them, in your haughtiest tone, “Actually, it’ll be the water content in my body doing the boiling, not the oil.” Then run ‡ ‡ ‡ The word “tempura” itself comes from the Portuguese, as many other Japanese words According to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, “tempora” means “period of time” and refers to the fasting seasons during which fried fish was consumed in place of meat These days, the word refers to any battered and fried item cooked in the manner of tempura fish, much like Americans have their “chickenfried steak”—steak cooked in the manner of fried chicken § § § The popular In-N-Out chain of fast-food hamburgers prepares their French fries in this manner—they are cut, rinsed, fried, and served As anyone can tell you, despite how great their burgers are, their limp, pale fries leave much to be desired A second trip to the fryer would wonders for them ¶ ¶ ¶ Does this remind anyone else of the razor-blade battles when Schick came out with its four-bladed Quattro to compete with Gilette’s Mach 3, and Gilette responded with a five-bladed razor? When will it all end?!? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Believe it or not, this unreasonably large book started as a very manageably sized book nearly five years ago Actually, I take that back This unreasonably large book started out as a teeny-tiny blog post about boiling eggs that ended up transforming my life in the way that a meat grinder can transform pork shoulder into a sausage With the help of dozens and dozens of people, I was systematically broken down, re-formed, stuffed, extruded, stretched, kneaded, seasoned, and perhaps even cooked a little, and ultimately came out the other end as a better writer, better cook, better photographer, and better person I’d like to thank my wife, Adriana, who had to put up with an apartment that smelled eternally of hamburgers and roasted chickens and Brussels sprouts and steak and everything else that ended up going into the bellies of our friends and neighbors She’s humored me when I dragged her along on 18-meal-per-day “research” trips She’s been OK with the fact that I’ve cheated on her—several times, in fact—with a hamburger-shaped mistress She’s spent years going to sleep in an empty bed while I clack away on my computer only to be woken up deep in the middle of the night when I decided that I just needed to fry another batch of chicken wings to answer a burning (literally) question All this and she’s still urging me to start writing another book I don’t know how my family puts up with my near-fascist ... seasoned, and perhaps even cooked a little, and ultimately came out the other end as a better writer, better cook, better photographer, and better person I’d like to thank my wife, Adriana, who had to... computer only to be woken up deep in the middle of the night when I decided that I just needed to fry another batch of chicken wings to answer a burning (literally) question All this and she’s still... else that ended up going into the bellies of our friends and neighbors She’s humored me when I dragged her along on 18-meal-per-day “research” trips She’s been OK with the fact that I’ve cheated on her—several times, in