KUROGE WAGYU - THE HIGHEST GRADE OF BEEF

Jo
Oct 22, 2017
2 min read

While I was in Osaka, I planned to go to Kobe to savour the famous Kobe beef which was least easy to obtain outside Japan. It would take 36 minutes by train and only 13 minutes by bullet train. However, looking at the rain, I just had no mood to travel. Good thing I was staying opposite Osaka station and there was underground tunnel connected to Daimaru Umeda shopping centre.

There were many restaurants at 15th floor of Daimaru, my heart was looking for Kobe beef steak house. There was this restaurant serving A4 Grade Kobe beef steak and it was Kuroge wagyu beef (Japanese black wagyu). Kuroge wagyu is extremely rare because it represents 15% of all beef produced in Japan.

Kobe is one of the highly coveted Japanese beef brands carrying area name, other brands are like Matsuzaka, Ohmi, Yonezawa, Mishima and Sanda which all hold the highest grade of A4 or A5. To put things into perspective, A5 grade is very rare in Japan. The meat is renowned for its fine grain, excellent marbling fat content, sumptuous texture and aromatic rich taste. The cattles were raised under supreme care like a child in the family, each calf has a name. They are raised slowly and treated with beer, massage and mozart music to cultivate the consistent fine marbling texture and flavour.

The old fashion charcoal grill brings out the best flavour of the meat. However, this restaurant used gas powered grill and served the steak on hot plate. The meat was sliced into sizzling strips. A round hot metal block was there for connoisseur to sear the meat and dip into the egg/raddish sauce for savouring. The meat it self was so authentic and heavenly flavourful! It was mouth-filling richness. The silky texture was as tender as was to melt in the mouth like foie gras. It represents luxury at its finest!