The rarest steak in Houston is at B&B Butchers & Restaurant on Washington Avenue.
No, we’re not talking about a bloody, cold-in-the-middle cut of meat, but rather a highly prized kind of beef and namesake of a basketball legend. This is about Kobe beef, of course.
B&B acquired Kobe last August and invited the media in for a multi-course meat tasting, where we tasted different types of beef including USDA prime beef, Texas wagyu, Japanese wagyu and of course, Kobe. And now, B&B is offering this tasting to the public. If you consider yourself a meat maven, here’s a chance to compare the best of the best, while also learning about B&B’s dry-aging process. The tastings are private (minimum of eight people, maximum of 16) and cost $225 a person ($295 with wine pairings).
Raw Kobe and Japanese wagyu. Photo by Felix Sanchez
Only nine restaurants in the United States are certified to sell genuine Kobe beef from Japan. Which means that those thousands of other restaurants claiming that they sell Kobe beef hot dogs, Kobe beef brisket and Kobe beef strip steaks are, well, mistaken.
True Kobe beef comes from a line of purebred Japanese black cattle from the mountainous Tajima province in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Each animal’s pedigree is carefully recorded, and all Kobe cattle are descended from one of the 12 ideal bulls kept in a special facility maintained by the Hyogo government. Calves and heifers are raised like royalty on small farms that provide a special diet for fattening. (However, the beer diet and daily massages you may have read about are mostly myth.)
“The Japanese have a real respect for their food,” said Benjamin Berg, proprietor of B&B Butchers (photo below at right). “And Kobe beef is a magnification of that care. The Japanese believe in strong tradition and a humane way of raising cattle and slaughtering it, along with an extremely regimented style of presentation.”
B&B’s executive chef Tommy Elbashary and proprietor Benjamin Berg. Photo by Felix Sanchez
The process of even getting certified to sell Kobe beef is long, arduous and confusing. “I wanted the real deal. I wanted the crème de la crème,” said Berg. “And I also wanted to offer every kind of steak possible at B&B Butchers. The challenge of finding it, the chase – that drew me.
“I first researched who has [Kobe beef] in the United States, then I found a Japanese importer in California. He helped me with the whole process. I got an application from the Kobe Beef Association, which was mostly written in Japanese and only a bit of English, so I even had to go the United States consulate to get it translated. I submitted the application, then just basically waited. The association doesn’t just give the certification to anybody; it carefully chooses who can become certified.”
Each certified restaurant is bestowed with a golden cow statue, and each cut of imported meat is marked with a special lotus stamp and serial number.
What’s most remarkable about Kobe beef is the marbling. There are more strands of white fat than red meat – the raw meat actually appears to be pink – which results in a melt-in-your-mouth buttery flavor that just about dissolves on the tongue. Prime cuts from American corn-fed cattle, such as Angus and Hereford, have thicker pieces of marbling and fatty pieces we commonly call “gristle,” which are harder to chew.
Currently, the average price for Kobe beef is a whopping $55 per ounce. For a four-ounce piece, that’s $220. Yet despite the price – the meat is so rich you can only eat a small serving anyway – B&B Butchers has received a greatly positive reception to the Kobe beef on its menu.
Berg takes whatever cuts he can get from Japan, sirloin being the most popular thus far. It’s almost double the size of a USDA Prime sirloin. The tenderloin, from which the filet mignon is cut, is the least marbled of all beef cuts, but a Kobe tenderloin has far more marbling than does any other tenderloin. For the ribeye cut, B&B Butchers serves the “eye,” where the marbling is very extreme, as well as the top part of the cut – Berg dubs it the “butcher’s butter” – which has the most marbling of all. See what the 12-course private meat tasting would include by checking out the menu below.
No matter the Kobe beef cut, expect a unique experience. The meat is pan-fried – think of dropping a stick of butter into a skillet – which produces a rich, almost creamy and slightly gamey taste. Some compare the flavor and texture to foie gras. You won’t need a knife to slice into the meat. It yields without resistance.
B&B Butchers & Restaurant, 1814 Washington Ave., 713-862-1814
For more information and to book your private tasting, please contact Kristin Bogart at kristin@bbbutchers.com or call 713-862-1814.
Portions of this article originally appeared in the October-November 2016 issue of My Table.