They claim direct import from Japan. Why would that be illegal?
If you want THE BEST STEAK EVER, trek on down here to Austin and visit Flemings. The next day, you can try out “Sullivan’s”, and then scoot on over to “Cool River”. On your way out of town, try out “Dan McKluskey’s” and then maybe, “Saltgrass Steakhouse”. There is also the “Texas Land and Cattle Co.”. Oh and we also have an OUtback or two here.
If it was still open, I’d reccomend the “Convict Hill Steakhouse”, but, alas, urban creep killed that one.
Since September, import of beef from Japan has been banned. This was in retaliation for Japan banning import of beef from the U.S. Japan banned beef because of Mad Cow fears.
I’m adding this to my list of places, and things I want to be when I get reincarnated.
In that case, I’ll have to propose a Level 0 for Ponderosa and Bonanza and Duffs Steakhouse (if they still exist), which on our family meagre budget, was a special night out, especially once they got their salad bars and “Tuesdays, kids eat free!” deals.
I don’t particularly like Outback as an objective measure, but you’re insane :). Sizzler’s meat is crap and definitely below even Outback’s meager quality.
I’ll eat at either by the way ( and I like my steaks medium to medium-rare ). I’m tolerant of mediocre meat, as all meat has redeeming values and if I’m in the right mood I’ll grab a Sizzler salad bar/steak combo. I just don’t kid myself that it is a good steak, any more than that all-you-can-eat-shrimp is good shrimp. It just satisfies a certain urge.
- Tamerlane
Sizzler > Outback? You must be insane, because last I checked, Sizzler was in the negatives.
(I don’t know, though, because last time I went to Outback, I had a wunnerful ribeye. But I can’t cook my own steaks to save my life, so feel free to criticize my food tastes as you see fit.)
The reason I listed Sizzler > Outback is because Outback used mass quanties of meat tenderizer. Sizzler in my experience Sizzler does not do this.
How do you know if your steak has been drenched in tenderizer? Meat tenderizer will turn the top most part of the steak to mush. Take a fork and scrape the top of the steak. If you get a pile of grey mush on your fork, it was tenderized. There is also a taste change, but mush is much easier to explain over the net.
But as I said before YYMV. Your list may well vary.
I just phoned them, and they are now importing “Kobe” style beef from Australia due to this ruling. So I agree they should no longer call it Kobe beef, though the Beef was imported from Japan when I asked a couple of months ago (being myself very dubious that it would be real Kobe).
Could it perhaps have been imported from Japan to Australia, and then from Australia to America?
I don’t think they (the restaurant) were entire truthful (deliberately or due to ignorance of the responder) a few months back. There was something in the original linked article to make me believe that the ban dated back further than this year. I was right
The recent vote, if I’m reading between the lines correctly, is more because restrictions on the importation of Japanese beef may soon have been lifted, and because Japan restricts imports of US beef, it was a tit-for-tat.
Unlikely, without going into deep research for a cite, I’m 98.6215% certain that all food items must be traced to their point of origin for legal importation.
This is a neat thread.
Viva la Dope!
They said the Kobe came from a farm in Australia, and some web searching shows Australia does produce “Kobe” style beef from Kobe cattle.
Cool! Some names I recognize! Hey, UncleRojelio, I’m willing to put Houston’s Flemings, Saltgrass, and Texas Land and Cattle Co. up against Austin. My, they cook a good well done steak! I am also fond of McCormick & Schmick’s, I think it’s a chain though I don’t think it’s a steakhouse per se.
Anyway, I want to thank lissener and Rick because I was starting to feel annoyed at the idea of chefs that I recommend to others (my company does a lot of client dinners, and I occasionally recommend restaurants for visiting executives) serving me something “less than”, for whatever reason. Keg’s reasoning sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and frankly, I can’t imagine ordering a cut of meat 7" in each dimension (isn’t that much bigger than a baseball? Could someone really eat that in one sitting?).
In reverese order, a hardball baseball is 7" in diameter, a softball is 9" A baseball sirloin is not round, but rather kinda square (looking from the top) and from the side is shaped like a mountain and while it may not be a full 7" in that direction, it is probably 4 or 5" tall. A fair bit of meat nonetheless. For sure less meat that a big t-bone or poterhouse.
I was going to make fun of you for listing McCormick & Schmick’s, as they are a seafood house, but I do see on their menu that they have 4 steaks listed. M & S is not the first name I would think of if I were think steak. 
for that matter, a large percentage of “Kobe” consumed in Japan comes from California. The rule in Japan is that the cow has to live at least 1 month (IIRC) in Kobe to be called Kobe. So they rasie them in California, ship them live to Kobe, and then slaughter them when enough time has lapsed.
Linkty, link, link.
Dude, I think you got your wires crossed somewhere. My *head *is barely 7" in diameter. A baseball is actually less than three inches in diameter, being around 9" in circumference.
I’ve lived in Austin and I’ve lived in New York and the true Alpha and Omega of steak is Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn, NY.
Close second to Sparks in Manhattan on grounds of an excellent wine list and no need to tromp out to an outer borough.
Everyone else is an also-ran, unless you want to start throwing Kobe/Waygu places in the mix.
S’truth. Inside a baseball Dividing that 9.25 inch circumference by pi gives 2.94 inches. A nine-inch ball would be a bit less.
DD