Tokyo 2014: Japanese beef tasting

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It's a national holiday in Japan today, so our original plan for another 3-macaron sushi lunch fell through.  After looking at different options with the Wommer, I finally suggested that we do teppanyaki somewhere, preferably in a hotel.  As it turns out, there is just such a place at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, so a reservation for made for Keyakizaka (けやき坂).

We looked at the menu and decided that doing à la carte would be a lot more interesting, albeit more expensive.  But hey, this was an eating trip, after all...

Fruit tomato, basil, olive oil - this was classified as a "salad", but this was actually cooked.  The dressing was made with pine nuts, bacon and balsamic vinegar.  Very, very delicious.

Grilled vegetables - we made the mistake of letting the chef pick, so we ended up with things like sweet potato and pumpkin.  I would have preferred more green veggies.  I was a little surprised that there was water bamboo, though...

When it comes to beef, the restaurant offers a beef tasting, where you can choose from a list and have 4 different types with 30g each.  I thought this was a great opportunity to compare different sources side by side, and ended up choosing all 4 sirloins on offer.

Japanese beef (国産牛) - pretty nice and delicious in its own right, but a far cry from any of the other cuts.

Kita Satsuma beef, Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県産 北薩摩牛) - definitely fatter and a lot more flavorful than the "regular" Japanese beef.

Iga beef, Mie Prefecture (三重県産 伊賀牛) - very, very tender without being as fatty as the Kobe.  Surprisingly, this was my favorite of the 4.

Kobe beef, Hyogo Prefecture (兵庫県産 神戸牛) - this was soooo fatty, and soft like Jello.  Very, very good.  Naturally.

Grilled rice, sea urchin, dried seaweed, fried quail egg (雲丹の焼きおにぎり) - I'm always looking for an alternative to the teppanyaki fried rice, and this looked interesting enough on the menu.  Turned out to be really yummy!  Grilled rice balls are a favorite of mine, and it's really tough to beat one made with sea urchin.  That quail egg on top just made it perfect!  The rice used was Hinohikari (ひのひかり) from Oita Prefecture (大分県).

I gotta say... this was just what we needed.  You can't come to Japan and not have some fatty, melt-in-your mouth Japanese beef, and it was interesting to be able to have done the tasting.  Very educational.  Now we just gotta walk and digest for the next few hours... until dinner...