I found some “kobe-style” beef (re: Wagyu) the other day at the Golden Gate Meat Company in the Ferry Building Marketplace (SF.) It can be the curse of the Ferry Bldg – go in with a $25 budget and leave $50 poorer. $30/lb for 18-day dry-aged wagyu won’t kill me I reasoned, so might as well partake.

This wasn’t as fatty as the beef I’ve had @ Urasawa (LA) or Sugiyama (NY) but, ironically, I may have liked it more. Yes, there wasn’t that overwhelmingly fatty taste nor melting in the mouth; instead, it had some bite with a nice beefy taste (granted, it had nothing on the 40-day dry-aged wagyu @ Morimoto.) And this was only aged for 18 days – I can only imagine if I could age this for a few more days and get an even more intense beef taste. (If you’re interested in experimenting to create a more flavorful and tender beef product, you can learn how to dry-age beef in this article.)

I had a pound, I cooked half for dinner (need something for lunch tomorrow.) A thoroughly enjoyable time (and dinner!)

The Meat

The Cross-section - it has some marbeling but it’s certainly not that fatty.

10 seconds/side on a hot pan w/ sea salt & pepper – seared outside, just a touch warm on the inside, near perfection.

Boiled for 20 seconds & finished w/ sea salt & pepper – this preparation allowed the taste of the beef to shine through (as opposed to the crust from searing.)

A thicker piece, 20 seconds/side – should have cooked it longer, still cold in the middle

Golden Gate seems to be carrying the meat on a fairly regular basis. My next experiment is to ask them to age it for 10-20 more days (for as long as they’re willing to) to see how much it impacts the taste.

- chuck