Good afternoon guys, welcome back to Journey Across Japan; Never-ending adventure of... Wander

Today we're in the vibrant port town of Kobe (神戸市), before I get back on my bike and carry on cycling across Japan to Kagoshima (鹿児島市)

We thought we'd come here, hang out and enjoy some rather delicious food

Which you could probably know what it is, because you've seen the title of the video but joining me as we eat this delicious food

Is my third guest of the trip and it's his last day joining us is Pete Donaldson

Hello, everyone, welcome to the part of Kobe (神戸市) opened to foreign visitors and foreign trade in 1858

How do you know that?

It was on the wall in Starbucks

Is that how you get all your knowledge? Off the walls of Starbucks

Yep

So Pete and I do a podcast, the Abroad In Japan Podcast, it's the original name

Subscribe, download!

Subscribe, this is great, it is in the link below

And back in March, Pete was interviewing Bryan Cranston on his radio show and I said to Pete; 'If you can get Bryan Cranston

to shout out the Abroad In Japan Podcast, I will literally buy you Kobe beef very expensive meal

I didn't think it was gonna happen but he pulled it off look

Hi, I am Bryan Cranston and you're listening to Abroad In Japan

And now we've got to do it, now I've actually gotta get him Kobe beef, so it's about 4 pm, we're about to drop into a restaurant

We're about to eat the most decadent juiciest beef in the whole world

You said I was the juiciest beef in the whole wide world

The moment you set foot in a teppanyaki grill restaurant serving Kobe beef

You're struck by the rich, sweet scent of the marbled fat streaking through the meat

That makes wagyu so iconic, whilst Wagyu simply means Japanese beef, within Japan, many regions have their own cuts

Such as Matsusakagyu, which is typically the most expensive and Miyazakigyu, which has won the most awards domestically in recent years

But it's Kobe beef that remains the most famous internationally, often confused with the word Wagyu itself

All Kobe beef is sourced from Tajima cattle, born raised and slaughtered in Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県) of which there are only a few thousand

And even then, only the finest cuts are graded and sold as A5 Kobe beef

Just asked how much that piece of meat would cost and he says; 'Basically same as a car'

Car priced beef chunk

You can probably run a car on the oil that's in there, to be fair

I love how quietly you're talking, as if we're in a library

I'm giving the beef the respect it deserves

Good beef deserves whispering, it's like a library of me

O, cheers to Bryan Cranston

What does they A5 mean?

A5 is the highest rank of Wagyu beef, you often see A5 wagyu beef right, wherever you go

So it's not the size of it, like printer paper?

It's not like printer paper no, it's better than printer paper, to be A5, the beef is ranked on four criteria

There's the marveling intensity, so how much fat is streaking throughout beef?

Yeah

The color of the fat as well, the color of the muscle tissue itself

Aka the meat, the little bit of meat that's in between the fat and the shape of the muscle

As well, aahh

I definitely didn't read that off my phone

I'm a expert

When cooking Kobe beef, some of the fat is trimmed and used to lubricate the grill

So no butter or oils necessary, which could intrude on the pure flavor of the beef

The aim is to sear the steak, just warming and melting the fats within

But not truly cooking them, a delicate process given the low melting point of the fat at just 26 degrees Celsius

In fact, if you cut off a slice of the fat and touch it, you can feel it start to melt, with the texture more reminiscent of ice cream

Next it's seasoned with salt and pepper

And periodically rested for typically twice the length of time that it's been cooked, giving it the perfect medium to rare finish

Watching this culinary art form unfold before you is tantamount to torture, but the reward is certainly worth the wait

I think the chef must have the weakest hands in the entirety of the cheffing world, yeah, cause if you don't need to

The weakest hands?

Yeah, 'cause you don't need to cut that using any kind of pressure on

You could talk that meat apart, that's how soft it looks, there's no pressure there, it's wonderful

There's a variety of ways you can enjoy the beef

There's salt, there's pepper and mustard and soy sauce and there's ponzu (ポン酢) which is like soy sauce with vinegar

They recommend that you have to beef with salt, so you just dab into the salt

And it's actually quite a thick chunk of beef, surprisingly thick

Oh my god, the moment you put it in your mouth, you can feel your tongue saliva

You can feel your whole mouth erupted, the moment this goes on your tongue

You feel your mouth started to water.

If you don't like watching TV programs, where like fat westerners eat like amazing food and go; 'O, it's heaven'

But I think I may have gone blind, 'cause that's how good this is

It is so good

A sort of spice goes straight through, even if you just flavour it slightly with a bit of salt, maybe a little bit of mustard

It's incredible, thanks, Chris and thanks, Bryan Cranston

I have to say, if I was on death row and I had to decide one meal, this meal that we just had would probably be it

Thing with wagyu, thing with kobe beef is for 250 grams

It's kind of just the perfect amount, because it is very buttery, it's very rich

I think if you have more, it might be a little bit overwhelming on your stomach

Yeah, you'd be slamming antacid until next Tuesday to be honest

Slamming antacids, another potential name for your indie rock band

Another thing I really like about going out for steak, Teppanyaki

There's a sort of theatrical quality to it, I'm watching the chef cook the meal

He's half the fun of coming out for teppanyaki, it's half the fun of coming out for Wagyu beef so

I don't even want to eat my beef, because I just don't want it to end, you know unlike Call of Duty

You have your last hand grenade, I'm gonna hold it back, you want to keep it in reserved

That's how I feel about this beef, I don't want to use it, I want to look at it

I want to admire it, I want to know that I'm gonna eat it, but not eat it, I don't want it to end

Imagine if you're like minted, I presume like an emperor or something

Minted like an emperor

When you came down here in your big

Emperor's car and have this everyday?

Everyday

Dead within a week

You would be dead within a week, the cholesterol would be off the charts

Yeah, but at the mortuary everyone be like that looks like a happy corpse

Well Pete the heavenly dinner is almost over

How do you feel?

Uhm

It just kept coming, Chris, it was relentless, it was a beef assault, but it was just incredible some of the best food

I think I've ever eaten in my entire life

It also goes really well with red wine, doesn't it?

Yeah, that's classic beef stabilizer, a bit of red wine, a little bit tart, a little bit brackish

What are these other words I've never heard of brackish, what is brackish? Is that even a word?

I traveled with three guests on this trip so far, I've had

Joey from Australia, Sharla from Canada and Pete from the UK, interesting fact

I've understood Sharla and Joey more than I have Pete, he's from North northern UK

North northern UK

North northen UK, but I don't, I don't know what he's saying most of the time

I just sort of nodding along and go, Yeah

Yeah, that word you said

But if you could summarize this meal, this decadent meal in two words, Mr. Donaldson

What would those two words be?

If you plan to visit a teppanyaki restaurant for Kobe beef, it's very important to do your homework

As there have been instances of restaurants taking advantage of tourists, some restaurants claim to sell Kobe beef

When actually they're just selling beef in Kobe (神戸市)

Other restaurants sell low-quality cuts of Kobe beef that don't make A5 grade

If you are gonna try Kobe beef don't walk into a restaurant on a whim off the street

Do you research carefully online or ask around to make sure you enjoy the real thing, after all there's no doubt

It is one of the most incredible dining experiences you're likely to have in Japan

If you're wondering how much this meal cost, guys

It's 250 grams of Kobe beef and it came in about ¥15,000 or $150

So it is pricey, it is a once in a year annual meal

At best, but fortunately this time, though I did say I was paying for Pete for the Bryan Cranston shoutout

It's actually Tokyo Creative, my agency who have been supporting me through this cycle, so big thank you to Tokyo Creative for

Buying us a wonderful meal and making it look like I paid for it, but I didn't

Well, Chris treated me to a $300 meal, so I thought I'd treat him to a ¥100, $1 coolish ice cream

It's quite good, I'm not gonna lie

It's not a bad finish, it really just put the icing on the cake, so to speak

Well we've had a lot of fun together, we've seen the monkeys of Kyoto (京都市)

We've explored the neon-lit streets of Osaka (大阪市) and now we've eaten a mountain of beef, but for now, that's all

That's it

Alright, I'm off

Goodbye Mr. Pete Donaldson, safe travels back to the UK

I don't know how I get home

You'll find out, Google Maps, mate, Google Maps, right?

We'll be back tomorrow, guys

Where I'll be carrying on the journey to Himeji Castle (姫路城) and ultimately on to Kagoshima (鹿児島市) for the next leg of our Journey Across Japan

But for now, no matter where you might be watching from, out there in the big wide world

Thanks for being a part of Journey Across Japan today, guys

And I will see you right back here tomorrow, to do it all over again

There is a storm coming

But when he gets here

There is no escaping him

Well at least for two or three days

Good morning, everyone and now I'm joining the tour