Thursday, August 14, 2008

Sendai's Beef Tongue

The city of Sendai in North Eastern Japan (Tohoku) is famous for Gyutan, or the beef tongue. Though I am not a beef eater, I decided to try it out since I made already made my way there!

The first shop I went to was supposed to be the founder of this dish. I think they only serve the Tare and Shio version, while most other shops have an additional Miso version. We chose the Shio version and I found the taste pretty good. Unfortunately, for some reason, the meat was rather chewy (probably I had the piece with some tendons or not sure what exactly it was). Taste wise, I would give it very high points, though texture was a little surprising. My companion was very apologetic about the quality of the shop's gyutan, but honestly, it's ok :) I really liked the taste :) BTW, those vegetables at the side are pickles. The usual set meal comes with barley rice and ox tail soup, but we weren't too hungry and only opted for the meat.

I had another try of the dish at another yakitori place, and the texture was softer :) However, I still liked the taste from the first shop :) I didn't take a picture of it though...


Deciding that I should eat Gyutan one more time before I left Sendai, I grabbed a box of Gyutan bento from the Sendai station and ate it on the Shinkansen (bullet train). This time, the meat was flavoured with miso and the result was a smoky sweet taste that was pleasant and not overwhelming. The barley rice was also pretty good. If the bento tasted this good, I am sure the set meal at a good restaurant would be really impressive!

Here is a write up of Gyutan from Japan-guide.com: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5157.html

Do visit Sendai if you have the chance. It's really beautiful and has tasty gyutan :)

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