Okay, I have to admit that it wasn’t THE Kobe beef from Japan, but Faux Kobe raised in the Kobe style here in America. And priced affordably (relatively speaking) at $15 per pound. (It sells for up to $500 per pound in Japan and $100 per pound at at least one market .here .)
I bought a half-pound piece. I didn’t even recognize the cut, it was just a square of extraordinarily marbled meat. I have never seen anything like it.
Brought it home, sliced it thin against the grain, splashed some soy sauce on it and threw it into a smoking pan for about three minutes.
Whoa.
Let me say that again.
Whoa.
Does it make sense to say that it was SO tender that it just missed being kinda disgusting? I have never dreamed that beef could taste or feel like that in my mouth. Amazing.
This is your meat reporter signing off to go buy another chunk of Faux Kobe beef…
** Peach, ** marbling is the MOST desirable thing you can have in meat. Marbling marks the differences between grades of Select, Choice, and Prime. The more marbled, the better the grade.
Of course, if you are attempting to avoid fat, then no, marbling is not desirable.
One of the interesting things about the Kobe beef is that the fat it is marbled with is apparently unsaturated! At least, that’s what one of the sites I visited said.
Good, well-marbled beef is amazing stuff. I don’t think the meat we buy from Uwajimaya is Kobe beef, but it’s still damn good. You can spoil yourself big time if you eat it too often.
I doubt that it’s unsaturated fat. One way to tell the difference if a fat is saturated/unsaturated is to see it at room temperature. If it’s solid–it’s saturated (butter, lard, etc) and if it’s liquid, it’s unsaturated (like olive oil).
What shop did you pick this up at? I’m pretty sure I can get it at Gelson’s, but I hardly venture into there.
The cattle are fed beer. Whether this is the sum total of their food supply, I don’t know.
I am insanely jealous. It is a life goal to try Kobe beef some day. Now I must seek out a source in Wisconsin. Maybe there’s a supply in Chicago?
My costs will be doubly high. I am completely incapable of preparing food for myself, and would quickly die outside of an urban environment. So I must eat in a restaurant with Kobe beef on the menu.
(scrabbles frantically for her copy of The Man Who Ate Everything) It’s supposed to have three times more marbling fat than prime U.S. beef, and less cholesterol. They’re fed beer to keep the microbes in their stomachs happy. Their fat contains a high ratio of monosaturated oleic acid (also found in olive oil).
I want some. Right now. There’s a whole chapter on Waygu, or Kobe beef, in the abovementioned book. The book’s a great read for lots of other reasons, too.
I’ve had Kobe beef once in Toronto alittle over a year ago. Cost me $150 Canadian. They asked me how I wanted it prepared. I responded, "Slice it thinly across the grain and seer each side for no more than a minute and bring it to me. It was like heaven. The meat damn near melted in my mouth.
Ah! No prob, you are mere minutes away. It’s barely south of Oxnard on Fallbrook. Little hole in the wall. West side of the street. Jim’s. They are all about the meat, it’s why I (and everyone else who shops there) goes there. I have friends who drive in from Hollywood to do their meat shopping there.
