Beefy Fat

Do I have your attention yet?  Facebook has this strange bug in which the only screenshot I can add to a link is the first picture on the blog post.  So obviously I'm starting with the picture above.

And then moving backwards in time to cover what's happened since the beginning of the week.  Nothing happened.  I finished classes and ate some mildly interesting things.

#1: Early in the week, I felt like some taiyaki.  So I bought a custard and a choco taiyaki from the corner taiyaki store on my way back from class.

Chocolaty, really chocolaty.  The custard was much better, and I wish I had gotten a red bean. 

#2: A ramen joint across the street closed down to general unpopularity and lack of business.  In its stead a curry place took over the space.

So one day, I sauntered over and took one of their European Style Beef Curries to go.  I figured that for 290 Yen, I really couldn't go wrong.  What I ended up with is this:

I guess beef curry just means it's made from beef, because I got no meat.  I mean I can't complain too much for 290 Yen, but I do feel misled.  Feeling like I needed some protein, I microwaved some sausages and added them to my meal.

Pretty good.  Definitely a little dark tasting, but complex and a bit spicy as well.  Not sure if I like it more than Coco Ichiban down the street, but like I said...290 Yen.  Speaking of which, we are way under-budget.  We basically stayed in and did nothing for the last two months, so we have this fortunate problem of having a couple thousand dollars too many.  So much for getting out there and experiencing Japan, right?  Our remedy for this situation?  Eat everything.

#3: Our friend Kyoko posted a picture on facebook claiming that this one drink was おいしい~.  So, I stopped by one of the million vending machines in the area to try Morinaga Hot Cake Milkshake.

I think miruku se-ki probably means milkshake, but I could be wrong because it wasn't like a milkshake at all.  It tasted more like a maple milk tea than pancakes really.  What is this strange Japanese marketing ploy?!  Do the Japanese want their drinks to taste like breakfast foods?  My verdict: just ok.  The coffee and tea that come in vending machines is just too sweet for me.  I like my coffee black and my tea green...or black...or yeah.

Thursday was my last class and we made plans for a last second shopping trip on Friday before flying out.  As usual, family was asking us to buy a million thing before coming back to Taipei.  V and I had two things for ourselves on the agenda.  V had promised to buy me a pair of jeans for Christmas and I planned to buy her a camera in return. Also, we wanted to meet up with people before we left; fortunately or unfortunately, the only ones available we Diana and Gordon.  Thus Friday night turned into a double-date.

We went to Bic Camera to purchase the Sony Nex-3 that V had been eying for months.  We spent way too long there trying to figure out how to sign up for a credit card in order to get a huge discount, for which I was ultimately denied.  I don't think I've ever gotten declined for a credit card...  Here's V and her new camera in a picture from my suddenly obsolete one.

That thing does it all.  It's a compact DSLR, but it comes with two lens, takes 720P movies in 3D, and comes in pink.  Talk about unnecessary functions...I don't even know anyone with a 3D TV.  V doesn't have depth perception and can't watch 3D movies.  Hmmm...  Also, I am now deathly afraid of V and her HD pictures.  They say that nowadays, people on TV just pile on the makeup because HDTV is so unforgiving; that's how I feel right now. 

Case in point: here is V's camera's virginal photo of me and Diana.  Looks clean right?  Too clean...  The camera supposedly has a feature to reduce blemishes and essentially fix your face.  Need to turn that on, like now.

On my end, I finally took the plunge and got a pair of Studio D'artisan's.  Correction: V got them for me!  I love my wife.  Here's what they look like on wear zero.

I'll keep updating how they fade and change as I wear them out.  Excited about that.

On our way back, we found this donut stand in the Meiji-Jingumae metro station.  Neither of us had eaten much at all, so we decided to try what the advertisement told us was the #1 donut on Rakuten.

This matcha azuki donut tastes more like cake than a donut.  I suppose that's why the store claimed that women like it.  It definitely felt healthier than the typically fried kind we're used to.  We didn't feel bad at all eating two.

After finishing all of our business, we finally met up with Diana at 六歌仙 - Rokkasen.  We've known about Rokkasen for a while, since the first time we walked through Shinjuku to check out or apartment, our realtor pointed it out and told us that place has yummy yakiniku.  We didn't know how pricy it was at the time, but we sat down for our most expensive meal in Japan.

V and I still hadn't tried Wagyu beef in Japan, and so we made a point to give it a go.  Originally, we had targeted Kobe beef, but Matsuzaka beef is actually held in higher regard and when we saw it on the menu, everyone decided to get that course.  The entire course included some side dishes, a salad, salted beef tongue, spine lobster, short ribs, and finished with the Matsuzaka ro-su (which I think is tenderloin).

Everything was righteously delicious.  The beef tongue was amazingly soft; I don't understand how it's possible to make tongue that marbleized.

Lobster.  Can't go wrong.  It took a little while to cook though, and the poor short rib waited on the side as we tried to get the shellfish to cook all the way through.  Eight courses in, we were doing pretty well, but we still had a couple to go.  Eight sounds like a lot, but they included stuff like lettuce as a course, so we only really ate maybe four or five different dishes.  Yeah, ok.  That still sounds like a lot.  Regardless, the star of the show finally arrived.

Supposedly Matsuzaka cattle is all female.  They're famous for being fed beer, but I found out that it's not to make them fat.  It's to make them eat more when they lose their appetite.  Additionally, they're rubbed down with shochu, given massages, and then gently walked in the afternoon.  A great deal of effort is put in to give you a cut of meat with that much marbleization in it.

When you eat it, you can clearly tell the difference (despite what Diana says).  I described it as "beefy fat" rather than fatty beef.  The sensation of it just melting away in the mouth is one that has no precedent in my culinary experience.  V has decided to go vegetarian for a while to give her arteries a break.

We actually had another course which was a rice course.  You got your pick of bibimbap, gukbap, or juk.  They were all pretty good, but I don't know if anyone finished theirs after the multitude of other courses we had just had.  We finished off with some strawberry and yuzu sorbet.  They were a nice touch, but Diana was disappointed that they didn't have the popsicles she had gotten the last time she came.  Posicles.

Rokkasen and Wagyu was an amazing experience.  I'm not sure if I need to eat it again anytime soon, but I am really glad that we finally tried Matsuzaka.  The only issue we had with dinner was that they kept rushing us to finish eating in two hours or so.  I guess they must have felt bad about it too since they gave us a discount.

Oh wait, that's only 4 Yen off.  Thanks for the 0.01% discount, guys.  We were contemplating just paying that extra 4 Yen to spite them, but quite frankly dinner was too enjoyable for us to be such assholes.

Tomorrow we fly out again for Taipei.  Feels like we've been there a lot lately, but Chinese New Year's is coming up and it's going to be my first time experiencing it for real.  V is excited too since it's been forever since she's been back for the Chinese holiday season.  It'll be my first time and the maiden voyage for V's new camera.  Look forward to it.