With Tempura Matsui, Fine Tempura Dining Arrives in New York

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Florence Fabricant, New York to Get a Big Taste of Tempura; Tempura Matsui looks to sell the city on a $200 tasting menu of delicately fried foods. New York Times, July 8, 2015.
www.nytimes.com/2015/07/08/dinin ... -new-york.html?_r=0

Note:
(a)  Tempura Matsui てんぷら・松井 "is owned by America Ootoya, part of a Japanese restaurant company. * * * Tomonori TAKADA 高田 知典, the president of America Ootoya, which owns four other restaurants in New York, said the company was confident" New Yorkers will love tempura, though shying away from fried food in general.

Ootoya  (株式会社) 大戸屋
www.ootoya.com
Another --a more common -- way of transliterating the company name is Ōtoya. (In other words, double o's and ō in separate transliteration systems mean the same a long vowel of "o.")
Most of its restaurants are in Japan, besides 23 throughout Taiwan and two in Shanghai.
Established in 1958, the company is based in Tokyo,

(b) "starts with several small dishes, which are not fried, to prime the appetite, like a few rich bites of chawanmushi custard."
(i) prime (vt): "to put into working order by filling or charging with something <prime a pump with water>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prime
(ii) chawanmushi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chawanmushi
(with numerous ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko, yuri-ne (lily root), ginkgo and boiled shrimp)
(iii) kamaboko  蒲鉾
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaboko
(The simulated crab meat product kanikama (short for kani-kamaboko), the best-known form of surimi in the West, is a type of kamaboko)
(A) Origin of the Japanese name: "その形が蒲（がま）の穂に似ていることから、「蒲鉾」と呼ばれるようになったとされる。"  Japanese Wikipedia for 蒲鉾

translation: Its [kamaboko's] shape looked like a cattail [because it was made by pouring fish puree into a bamboo tube], hence 蒲鉾.
(B) Typha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha
(a genus; known in British English as bulrush, or reedmace, in American English as cattail)

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(c) Japanese English dictionary
* chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し; 茶碗蒸 【ちゃわんむし】 (n): "chawanmushi; savoury steamed egg custard with chicken, mushrooms, etc"
* yurine 百合根 【ゆりね】 (n): “lily bulb”
* kaba; gama; kama (ok) かば; がま; かま(ok) 《蒲》 (n): "common cattail (Typha latifolia); common bulrush; common reed mace"
* hoko 矛(P); 鉾; 戈; 戟; 桙; 槍 【ほこ】 (n): "long-handled Chinese spear; lance; pike"
* kani かに《蟹》 (n): "crab"
* The “kisu” きす is Japanese whiting, Sillago japonica. See (f)(ii).

(d) "He [tempura master] is Masao MATSUI 松井 雅夫" (who was 大戸屋商品開発本部の松井料理長)
(e) "Mr Matsui is here thanks to Hisami MITSUMORI 三森 久實, the chairman 会長 of Ootoya, the parent company [of the American subsidiary (America Ootoya)], which owns more than 300 restaurants in Japan and serves mostly comfort food, not tempura."

(f) "a doll-size fillet of kisu, a kind of whiting"
(i) whiting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiting
(section 1 Fish)
(ii) Japanese whiting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_whiting
(Sillago japonica; As suggested by its name, the Japanese whiting was first recorded from Japan in 1843, but has subsequently been found to extend to Korea, China and Taiwan [see map]; The species has a known maximum length of over 30 cm)

(g) "Chefs in Japan may vary the list, but it’s inevitably shrimp heads to start and kakiage to finish because shrimp are considered to be the marquee ingredient, the item by which tempura is judged. Mr. Matsui challenges himself to seal them in the sheerest possible coating so diners taste sweet, succulent seafood with a whisper of crispness. This experience is the antithesis of the familiar plate of big shrimp and slabs of vegetables cloaked in thick, doughy armor, typical in Japanese restaurants in the United States."

tempura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempura
(section 1.4 Serving and presentation: Kakiage [かき揚げ; 掻き揚げ] is a type of tempura made with mixed vegetable strips, such as onion, carrot, and burdock, and sometimes including shrimp or squid, which are deep fried as small round fritters)