Save a Lot Carry Beef Tongue

(CNN) — Sampling Japan's beef is a priority amid many international visitors, with words similar Wagyu, Kobe, yakiniku and Matsusaka racing through their minds every bit they step off the plane.

A word that's commonly excluded from their meat-based vocabularies? Gyutan.

In spite of the rise of nose-to-tail eating in trendy Western culinary circles, beef tongue has yet to set the sense of taste buds of diners aflutter.

Fans of the dish, however, claim that once you lot get past the psychological resistance to eating tongue, you'll be hooked for life.

The birthplace of gyutan

A piece of Aji Tasuke'due south perfectly seasoned beef tongue.

Pongpat Patumsuwon/CNN

Though gyutan is available at yakiniku restaurants all over Japan, Sendai -- the largest city in Japan'south northern Tohoku region -- is where you'll find the highest concentration of eateries solely defended to grilling upwards juicy strips of beef tongue.

On my first nighttime in Sendai I headed straight for the original -- Aji Tasuke, founded in 1948 by a human named Keishiro Sano.

According to the eating place, he left his dwelling house to apprentice in Tokyo around 1935. It was in that location that he met a French chef, who he saw cooking up a beefiness tongue stew. Inspired, he decided to prepare it differently to suit Japanese tastes.

Later Globe War Two ended, he returned north and opened a restaurant in Sendai. Due to nutrient shortages, he began serving his take on beefiness tongue, forth with tail soup.

Well-nigh seven decades on, Sano has passed abroad but his photo still hangs on the wall and the restaurant is still going potent, at present run by his eldest son.

And it'south got contest.

Nowadays yous can't turn a corner in the center of this urban center of one million people without seeing a restaurant advertising gyutan -- "gyu" is Japanese for cow, while the "tan" refers to the English word for natural language.

Tasting the tongues

Sendai beef tongue eating house Aji Tasuke.

Pongpat Patumsuwon/CNN

During my Aji Tasuke visit, staff were helpful but far from effusive.

An most comically short English card was quickly passed to me every bit I grabbed one of nigh a dozen stools at the tiny eatery'south counter -- a front row seat to the activity.

One man was on tongue-grilling duty.

He carefully plucked the minor, pink cuts of beef tongue from a towering plastic-wrapped slab, laying them atop the flaming charcoal grill.

Using a large pair of wooden chopsticks, he flipped them over twice -- about twenty seconds per side. Loud sizzles filled the air equally the fat dripped onto the flames.

The juicy tongue slices were perfectly seasoned with just enough common salt to allow the season of the meat to blast through.

Not into beef natural language? Aji Tasuke's not for you.

Karla Cripps/CNN

The texture, though a tad fleck tougher than regular beef cuts, wasn't the mastication struggle gyutan virgins might envision.

Y'all can order the beefiness tongue a la menu, just I recommend the gear up meal, which includes a bowl of succulent tail soup and a side of mugi gohan (barley rice) for 1,600 yen ($xiv.66).

For those who want to try other variations of the dish -- Aji Tasuke merely serves it the ane manner -- restaurants Rikyu and Kisuke accept several locations in Sendai.

The beef tongue curry served at both is specially practiced.

Made in America

Prized as Japanese beef might be, the tongues served in most Nippon restaurants are imported from the Usa.

According to Joe Schuele, vice president of communications at the U.S. Meat Export Federation, Nihon imported more than than 16,500 metric tons of U.S. beef tongue in 2015.

Non all of them are being served in Sendai. Schuele says there are about 22,000 yakiniku restaurants in Nihon and nearly all serve beef natural language.

There are two reasons for its popularity.

"U.S. beef natural language has richer season than tongues from Australia and New Zealand considering U.South. beef is corn-fed," said Schuele. "U.S. feeding practices also ensure that U.S. tongues accept a higher level of tenderness.

"Because it is corn-fed and more than tender, U.S. beef tongue too has less cutting loss. Grass-fed tongues crave that the musculus surface be removed because that portion tends to be very tough."

Why Sendai?

To learn more than about gyutan's place in the Japanese diet, I reached out to Japanese food expert Elizabeth Andoh, who has authored several books on the country'due south various cuisine.

"The Japanese are, in general, all for using nutrient fully," she said. "Information technology's a mindset that if you're going to exist slaughtering the brute you should be using everything that'south edible from it."

This, and a lack of options, could well have contributed to its post-Globe War Two rise.

"I think the whole story of nutrient is all about agony and imagination," she said. "And I think that desperation in the course of shortages is certainly part of the story."

Then why is Sendai considered the gyotan capital of Nippon, even though the dish is made with U.South. beef tongues?

Andoh points to the country's regional food identities, a miracle in which each prefecture is known for offer its ain culinary specialty.

"Most Japanese who pale out that territory don't step on each other's toes," she said.

"Information technology's sort of an agreement, and it's non just tongue in Sendai. It's a way in which Japanese commercialize certain food products."

This extends to "omiyage" -- gifts that Japanese purchase for friends, colleagues and family when they travel.

"Information technology'southward somewhat obligatory, especially in business, because the assumption is that fifty-fifty if it is for work, you are yet making things more challenging for your colleagues in your absence and and then inevitably you bring something back," said Andoh.

For those heading to Sendai on business organization the obvious omiyage pick is beefiness tongue, which can be plant in frozen, set-to-travel packages sold by multiple vendors at the Sendai train station.

In Nihon, she added, at that place are even 1-day tours that allow travelers to go have tiffin to experience a regional specialty.

"There are lots of local companies that will put together tours for Sendai tongue," added Andoh.

"That being said, tongue is available in Tokyo just typically information technology's going to exist served in restaurants that annunciate it as 'Sendai style'. Information technology'southward something that's going to bring in customers and assure them that it's authentic."

Getting there: Sendai, in Miyagi prefecture, is serviced by regular flights from Japan's major cities. Shinkansen bullet trains depart from Tokyo multiple times a mean solar day. The journey takes less than 2.5 hours.

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/beef-tongue-sendai/index.html

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