Adventures in Eating - Wagyu Sushi

Last night, quite unexpectedly, a good friend from high school treated me to an amazing meal of traditional Japanese food.  She took me to an izakaya, which is kind of like a Japanese neighborhood bar where you (usually) sit at a counter and order a series of small dishes.  My friend had worked at this particular izakaya part-time for several months, but had since stopped working there as she had found a full-time job.  Anyway, this particular izakaya was particularly well-regarded for its food, and she knew the menu cold.  After playfully catching up with her former coworkers, she began ordering a series of dishes including things like platefuls of grilled clams, wild Japanese greens and sesame seed salad, delicate crepe-thin rolled-up egg pancakes served with grated Japanese radish, lightly pan fried chicken pieces served with lemon and grated radish, foie gras and green pea dumplings in a clear vegetable soup, and grilled rice balls with eel in a tea-based soup.  It was just amazing.

The surprise of the meal came when the owner of the izakaya came over to where we were sitting to say hello and catch up with my friend.  They talked for a while, he asked how I liked Japanese food and my friend told him I was a pretty adventurous eater.  Now, it's important to note here that by American standards, I have been a very adventurous eater while I've been in Japan (I've eaten such things as octopus, squid with the ink still in it, shark, jellyfish, sea urchin eggs, eel, fermented soybeans, seaweed).  However, most of these types of food are (with the exceptions of jellyfish and shark) normal parts of the Japanese diet.  That is to say, by Japanese standards I haven't ventured far at all or perhaps even really experienced Japanese cuisine at its finest.

Anyway, I had heard about various types of (raw) sashimi eaten as a delicacy in Japan, such as beef, horse, whale, and even chicken, but I'd never eaten any of it.  Maybe it's my American norms of eating or my disease and parasite-obsessed public health mind, but quite frankly, the idea of eating any of those things completely freaked me out.  Suffice to say, I was a bit startled when the owner of the izakaya returned with a small plate that had two pieces of wagyu, or raw beef sushi and a small mound of pickled ginger.  He explained what the dish was, stood back, and kind of grinned as I boldly (I thought, at least) picked up my chopsticks and ate the first piece of the surprisingly heavy... quivering... fatty....raw.... beef sushi.  I was even more surprised that I liked it so much.  The beef was beautifully marbled, chewy and flavored with a bit of thinly sliced spring onions.  It tasted kind of like you might expect... fatty... raw.... beef to only way, way better.

Anyway, the point of this whole story is that not only are Japanese people are unparalleled in their hospitality and their interest in sharing their culture with foreigners, but I think they truly delight in people from outside discovering the finer points of Japanese cuisine, architecture, customs, etc.

Thank you for the beautiful meal!  ごちそうさまでした！