Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [49]
Sukiyaki & Shabu-shabu
Restaurants usually specialise in both these dishes. Popular in the West, sukiyaki is a favourite of most foreign visitors to Japan. Sukiyaki consists of thin slices of beef cooked in a broth of shōyu, sugar and sake, and accompanied by a variety of vegetables and tofu. After cooking, all the ingredients are dipped in raw egg before being eaten. When made with high-quality beef, like Kōbe beef, it is a sublime experience.
Shabu-shabu consists of thin slices of beef and vegetables cooked by swirling the ingredients in a light broth, then dipping them in a variety of special sesame-seed and citrus-based sauces. Both of these dishes are prepared in a pot over a fire at your private table. Don’t fret about preparation – the waiter will usually help you get started, and keep a close watch as you proceed. The key is to take your time, add the ingredients a little at a time and savour the flavours as you go.
Sukiyaki and shabu-shabu restaurants usually have traditional Japanese decor and sometimes a picture of a cow to help you identify them. Ordering is not difficult. Simply say sukiyaki or shabu-shabu and indicate how many people are dining. Expect to pay from ¥3000 to ¥10,000 per person.
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KŌBE BEEF
All meals involving Kōbe beef should come with the following label: warning, consuming this beef will ruin your enjoyment of any other type of beef. We’re not kidding, it’s that good.
The first thing you should know about Kōbe beef is how to say it: it’s pronounced ‘ko bay’, which rhymes with ‘no way’. In Japanese, Kōbe beef is known as Kōbe-gyū. Second, Kōbe beef is actually just one regional variety of Japanese beef, which is known as wa-gyū (literally ‘Japanese beef’). Wa-gyū can be any of several breeds of cattle bred for the extreme fatty marbling of their meat (the most common breed is Japanese Black). Kōbe beef is simply wa-gyū raised in Hyogō-ken, the prefecture in which the city of Kōbe is located.
There are many urban legends about Kōbe beef, promulgated, we suppose, by the farmers who raise them, or simply imaginative individuals who ascribe to cows the lives they’d like to lead. It is commonly believed that Kōbe beef cattle spend their days drinking beer and receiving regular massages. However, in all our days in Japan, we have never seen a single drunk cow or met a ‘cow masseur’. More likely, the marbling pattern of the beef is the result of selective breeding and the cow’s diet of alfalfa, corn, barley and wheat straw.
The best way to enjoy Kōbe beef, or any other type of wa-gyū, is cooked on a teppan (iron hotplate) at a wa-gyū specialist, and these restaurants are known as teppen-yaki-ya. In the West, a giant steak that hangs off the side of the plate is generally considered a good thing. But due to the intense richness (and price) of a good wa-gyū steak, it is usually consumed in relatively small portions, say, smaller than the size of your hand. The meat is usually seared quickly and then cooked to medium rare – cooking a piece of good wa-gyū to well done is something akin to making a tuna fish sandwich from the best cut of toro (fatty tuna belly) sashimi.
Although Kōbe beef and wa-gyū are now all the rage in Western cities, like most Japanese food, the real thing consumed in Japan is far superior to what is available overseas. And – surprise, surprise – it can be cheaper to eat it in Japan than overseas. You can get a fine wa-gyū steak course at lunch for around ¥5000, and at dinner for around double that. Of course, the best place for Kōbe beef is – you got it – Kōbe. See our eating reviews