A night out in Tokyo and everyone says beef, and I say yes. I had a chance to visit a steak shop with a friend who is as much as a foodie as I am. So he picks the time and place and we are off. The maître d’hôtel guides us through his beef assortment, there are numerous cuts as he points to the Champion beef. Everyone listens when they hear the word champion and it catches our attention. But the first offer is a cut from the

neck and its referred to as necktie, and in Japanese nekutai, so we oblige on the advice of the experts. This beef was tasty, it was soft and had good flavors, not something I’ve tried before in Japan.

The next cut is the filet and it has the characteristics of filet, tenderloin is one of my favorite cuts and is hard to find in Japan given its only a small piece in a cow. This time the trimmings are unconventional (end cut tenderloin tips) so the chef offers us the meat as a courtesy. Here you can see the actual grooves are defined by the two muscles on either side of the center cut.

The last piece was my least favorite, its fatty and chewy at the same time and was too beefy.