Nowadays, it seems as if every bar is offering some sort of “Kobe beef slider” or something similar, but in reality, there’s no way any of those contain even a trace of real Kobe. Why? Because Kobe beef is up there with the most expensive beef in the world, only available at a handful of high-end steakhouses in America. But if you can afford it, a handful of companies (including Holy Grail Steak Co. and New York Prime Beef) are selling real-deal Kobe beef online, and we had the opportunity to cook up a Kobe steak for ourselves.
So what is Kobe beef, exactly? Kobe comes from the Japanese Black breed of cattle (one of the four breeds that can officially be called wagyu) that are raised in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture according to very strict rules. These cows are pampered to no end (stories are told of massages, classical music and beer feedings), and the end result is beef that’s so intensely marbled that it’s a full two notches above Prime, which is the most marbled grade on the USDA’s scale. And because of the cows’ diet, the marbling is full of healthy monounsaturated fatty acids, so it’s not actually as unhealthy as it appears. The meat itself is incredibly tender and flavorful, and it’s also extremely expensive — the 15-ounce Kobe strip we were sent, from Holy Grail, retails on the website for $299.
