Kobe Beef: Know More About This Prime Steak

If you are one of the few people yet to hear about Kobe beef, then you will soon. In simple terms, it is regarded as the best quality meat in the world, but sadly that high regard also comes with an extravagant price tag.

If you search prime steak online, you will quickly learn more about its current market price. Yet, while Kobe beef is costly, it remains in high demand and it sells like the proverbial hotcake. People who have been lucky enough to experience the taste have often described it as simply heavenly. And despite the cost, they keep on coming back for more, prompting those who haven’t tasted it to want to see what all the fuss is about.

In Japan, Kobe beef is considered a delicacy and its production a national tradition, but it is not produced on a massive scale. The meat can be eaten raw in the form of sushi or served as teppanyaki, sashimi, shabu shabu or sukiyaki. In places outside of Japan, however, the beef is mostly appreciated as Kobe steaks.

Kobe beef has created a big splash in the culinary world. When that happened, Japan was not yet ready for such an international demand. A few top end restaurants were able to import authentic Kobe beef at huge expenses. Today, Japan permits other countries such as the U.S. to import and breed Wagyu cattle (the breed of cow local in Japan where Kobe beef comes from) because of land shortage at home. However, for the meat to be officially qualified as Kobe beef, the cows still need to be exported back to Japan and slaughtered in Hyogo Prefecture. With this new cattle farming strategy, the production of Kobe beef increased but not sufficiently enough to meet worldwide demand, meaning no reduction in the high price of the Wagyu meat.

Because of this shortage, the United States created an alternative beef to try and satisfy local demand. This cattle meat became known as Kobe-style beef or American Wagyu beef, and people who had already tasted the original commented that it is a poor imitation of the world's best meat, The U.S. also cross bred Wagyu cattle with their local Angus cow, producing a different flavored meat again. Meanwhile Kobe beef continues to sell at a staggering rate, even though Kobe-style beef is readily available at a much lower price.