The Great Kobe Beef Mystery … the real deal ???

Greetings Carnivores,

Have you ever been to a high-end restaurant where they advertise Japanese Kobe Beef on their menu? Do you even know what Kobe Beef is? How about Wagyu Beef??

630067281_817a8b5bbc — Is it Kobe Beef? Unless you ate it in Japan … ‘probably’ not

Boy, I’m opening a real can of worms here.

Truth is … If you’ve paid the retarded premium price for Kobe beef, and you didn’t eat it in Japan, you haven’t had REAL Kobe beef.

The steak (or burger, whatever) that you paid BIG bucks for was probably exceptional BUT … here’s the tricky part: Kobe refers to a PLACE in Japan where they raise this special animal and, just like Champagne refers to a region of France where the bubbly originates … anything produced OUTSIDE of Champagne is nothing more than Sparkling wine, AND beef produced OUTSIDE of Hyogo prefecture (of which Kobe is the capital city) is an imposter. Until just recently, … it was NEVER even exported here (to North America).

Wagyu, Wagyu ‘style’, domestic Wagyu is another ‘trick’ the industry is playing on you too … Wagyu actually means “Japanese Cattle” and does not mean it’s Kobe. Look at it this way: a motorcycle is a two-wheeled, motorized vehicle but … not all motorcycles are Harley Davidsons. Motorcycle manufacturers around the world have for years copied the look and feel of the Harley Davidson. Sounds snobbish but, what I’m trying to say is if it looks like a cow, and moo’s like a cow … unless you’re in Japan, it’s not necessarily a Kobe Beef cow.

The reason this is so is because the USDA doesn’t recognize the copyright and hence, allows anyone to call their beef “Kobe” AND get away with charging an arm and a leg for it in their restaurants.

The next time you go to a game and see “Kobe Beef” Hot Dogs on the menu, or “Kobe Beef” meatballs at the grocery store … save your money, you’re being duped. Just like that $40.00 burger at the Bistro … yup, not the real thing.

And lastly, there’s also a myth about how Kobe Beef cattle are massaged daily, fed a crazy diet which includes beer and serenaded by Barry White on the old ‘Close ‘n Play’ … rubbish. (I made up the part about Barry White 🙂 )

Do your own research folks, I think you’ll be surprised.

Until then, stay hungry Carnivores and as usual, please follow my posts on Twitter @DougieDee and like and share them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/carnivoreconfidential

4Comments

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1

Mad dogs and Polisen on May 13, 2013 at 9:37 PM

Thanks for the 411. Is Sterling worth the money?
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  kandee2013 on May 13, 2013 at 11:24 PM
  
  Thanks for the question Mad Dog. Truth is, I applaud the producers of “Sterling” for calling it as such. We (here on this side of the pond) produce some very high quality beef. Rather than “rip off” the “Kobe” brand (name) because of a ridiculous, copyright, trademark loophole, these producers have ‘done the right thing’ and come up with their own “brand” name … they should be proud. Is it “Kobe-like”? … don’t know, because … I have never been to Japan but … it’s on my ‘bucket-list’
3

Norm on May 14, 2013 at 6:12 AM

I did know about attempts to pass Kobe beef off here as being the real thing were bogus, but my understanding that Japanese cattle had been imported and were raised the same way as “Kobe” beef was. They just could not call it Kobe beef (much in the same way that you can produce a sparkling wine, but unless you are doing it in the region of France called Champagne, you could not call it champagne, just sparkling wine).

So is so called Wagyu the North American version of Kobe, worth the price at all?
4

kandee2013 on May 14, 2013 at 6:54 AM

The name “Wagyu” can be applied to anything meaning, some producers call it “Wagyu-like”, “Domestic Wagyu”, … whatever. Being that Wagyu simply means “Japanese cattle”, they could be cross-bred with more common North American breeds such as Black Angus, or Charolais. I’m quite sure the eating experience IS exceptional BUT … I take exception to being charged a crazy price for something it’s not. And … as usual, the unsuspecting public gets screwed … again.

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