Trying Wagyu on this Japan trip has changed my life. In a tiny way, but still, life changed.
One of our objectives in this Japan trip was to try Wagyu. While strolling through Kuromon Market, we found a store that sold Wagyu and would cook it on the spot for you. It seems pretty popular with a lot of newspaper clippings and photos with celebrities, so we made a note to try it before we left Osaka.
They have a display where you can select the exact cut of meat and marbling that you want and each is priced differently.
We got the Kobe Beef (of course!) and this particular piece was ¥4500-¥5000.
I am not an expert on steak at all. But that marbling, it's gorgeous.
They will cook it on the spot for you to consume. You tell them what rareness you want it done at, and they will cut it up and grill it for you. There are only a a few seats for eating, perhaps 5 or 6. And it's usually very crowded, so you have it cooked for takeaway and they will serve it on a styrofoam plate so you can eat while strolling through the rest of the market. I prefer sitting down and being able to savour my food though, so it's worth the wait.
I initially was a bit annoyed at this inefficiency. Why can't he cook more than once piece of meat at one time? That's why there's such a long queue. But by the time he got to cooking our piece of wagyu, I appreciated the conscientiousness and attention that went into cooking a piece of meat for us, and that he wouldn't have to split his attention.
Almost done!!!
Eating wagyu can tend to be a very oily and icky experience after a while, so the onions do help to cut through the oiliness a bit, and refresh and rejuvenate the tastebuds for more.
The wagyu was so succulent and so juicy. There's very little of the cow taste that I hate in regular steak, perhaps due to all that fat content. I really savoured every bite of this wagyu I had (especially since it was so expensive!). The high marbling makes it so tender and so delightful to bite into. It doesn't exactly melt in your mouth like some of the other wagyu I had, and it does take a bit of chewing. But it still does settle in your mouth beautifully and fill the entire cavity of your mouth with that unique fragrance of the meat as you keep chewing on it.
Value
You can probably expect to spend around ¥1000-¥5000/SGD12-SGD62 depending on the kind of cut of wagyu you choose to get.
We personally spent ¥4500-¥5000/SGD50-SGD62.
It's quite expensive. But if you love meat and steaks, then this is something you should definitely splurge on. Eating Wagyu was one of the best experiences I had on this trip. But it's also not something I will keep splurging on in the same trip.
Maruzen Meat Shop 丸善食肉店
(Website)
(Website)
Kuromon Market (Stall 146 on the Kuromon Market Map)
Nearest station: Nipponbashi 日本橋
Osaka, Japan
Osaka, Japan
No comments:
Post a Comment