We found ourselves in the fabled Kobe. Far from how I envisioned this world famous place to be, as I earlier imagined this place to be full of cows, farms and hays. With slopping terrain. Lots of grass and sunshine.
No, no, no. It is a city with a Port, with hundreds, if not thousands of high rise buildings and a very active culinary life.
Thanks to Tripadvisor and Google Maps, we chanced upon this restaurant which while small in size, it had plenty to be excited about.
As part of a chain of 25 or so restaurants, it had one teppanyaki table and could seat 8, all around the chef, M Hirose, who was the proud king in this kingdom. He recommended, took our orders, took our photos, answered our gazillion questions with much wisdom and aplomb, prepared our food, served our drinks, cleaned up and presented us our bill.
Here are a few of what I recall from our conversations with Chef Hirose:
– Best eaten without any condiments; at least on the first bite. As we had about 9 pieces of this beautiful food, i did not dip most on any;
– The dips were a choice of Rose rock salt, wasabi, miso;
– The Chef’s preferred cooking is medium rare;
– The farms where this black cow are located in the far western side of where we were;
– The meat that we ate was known as the H-Bone or the buttocks of the cow.
– The meat has several grades in Japan : A to D. And each grade, has several levels. The meat we were served was the highest at A5. Hence, the flavor, tenderness and the well deserved $$$$$. The Fat Level was 10 and it was mid-range with 15 being the highest.
– Hopefully, we did not misunderstand each other but we asked the good Chef about Wagyu which turns out to be any cattle of Japanese origin which includes Kobe beef and Matsusaka beef.
All photos taken in Kobe Beef.
I giggled at myself for being quite a probinsiano, at heart still. I think I will remain so happily till my time comes up. Meanwhile …. I appreciate.
May Kwento Ako 