Quote: (05-11-2019 09:56 PM)AlphaRN Wrote:
Bumping this thread for two reasons. 1. Great advice. 2. Asking for info on Wagyu A5. I have had it in a couple restaurants. But now want to order it myself. Anyone tried any online places with success. Also, any advice on preparations?
It looks like the best way is to order an entire eye or loin, and cut it yourself. Still pricey, but you can knock the price down a good $30 per steak that way.
I would not order wagyu beef online. I'd go to a butcher shop and ask them to special order it for me. Even Whole Foods may be able to special order Japanese Beef for you.
If that fails, I would try to establish a relationship with a restaurant that serves it. Chefs often will not sell raw product to consumers, but some will.
My own $.02 though...Japanese beef is just too much. In Japan, it's eaten very sparingly and in much smaller quantities than in the U.S. Usually as a very thin steak cooked quickly in teppanyaki, or sliced thinly and eaten in shabu shabu or other hotpot dishes (Donabe). If I was making a wagyu steak at home I'd cook it over a very hot grill to rend as much fat as possible. A very japanese preparation would be to prepare a very hot dashi, add soy sauce, mirin, and sake, add some seasonal vegetables, and present the raw, thinly sliced beef on the side. Dip the beef slices into the hot broth and cook to your liking, only a few seconds or so, and then eat. Probably the best way to enjoy the pure flavor of Japanese beef. Afterwards eat the vegetables and also could add some rice to the broth as the "shime", or the finishing dish. Eat with some Japanese pickles on the side.
There is a domestic producer called Snake River Farms that has a black and a gold label. It's wagyu beef, just produced in the U.S. It's not on the same level as imported Japanese, but it's a start, and significantly cheaper. The gold label is the most marbled, I just got done selling a bunch at the restaurant. As always I ate some and it's just so goddamn rich, you really don't want to eat more than 4-6 ounces of this stuff.
