Pampered cows – Wagyu tasting

DR.com hosted an amazing wagyu beef tasting. It was some serious business, and everyone was mighty hopped up and excited to get going. We started off with some rillettes, which were deliciously fatty and salty. The dish was sitting at our table for a long period of time, so we got the chance to dip in several times.

For some reason, whenever I am around wagyu beef, I overhear something inappropriate at a neighboring table. Tonight it was some comment about saggy boobs. When I was at the French Laundry it was someone talking about va-jay-jays. UGH! Were you folks raised by wolves?

So we started off with a carpaccio of beef with a light salad and some various salts on the side. One of them was a bit sulfurous and tasted quite a bit like eggs. It was kind of an interesting touch, which in retrospect might have been a nod to tartare. Our table was kind of dumb and didn’t hear that we could go up and try out some other types of salts. I’ve never had beef carpaccio before so I don’t have much context to compare. It mostly revealed the fattiness and richness of the meat. I can’t say I was completely blown away, but it was good.

The seared wagyu though was probably one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. I could tell the instant I ran my knife through the beef I could tell the searing and fat were perfect. I heard a slight crispy sound and could feel the texture with my knife. The seasonings were perfect and it had the most amazingly rich flavor. Also the outside was seared so that it had almost a delicate crust. The fried rice was a lot like what my dad makes, rife with scallions and bits of egg. But still very light. This wagyu was about 20 times better than what I had at The French Laundry. According to the chef, the difference is the FL version is made with American wagyu, where the production time is two years versus three years in Japan. The fat ends up more in globs than evenly distributed through the meat, and the fibers in the Japanese wagyu is more thinly striated, which will make it less tough. Another interesting factoid is that the cows raised in Kobe are subject to more variation in climate changes, which they claim is the reason that Kobe is superior to other wagyu raised throughout Japan.

More pics here.