Wagyu (The Restaurant): Hong Kong's Aussie Steakhouse

A little over a year ago, I was walking through Central in Hong Kong and I happened to pass by a construction site for a new restaurant. The sign said Coming Soon - Wagyu. Once an unknown term in the western world, the past few years have seen an explosion of wagyu beef offered at high end restaurants and shops. It has even trickled down to more humble venues, often in the form of a wagyu burger. The mission of Wagyu restaurant, as I would later read in one of those handy guide magazines the hotels give you, is to bring prime grade-9 Australian wagyu beef to the masses at a reasonable price. This was a mission I could fully support.

What exactly is wagyu, you ask? Well, literally, it means "Japanese cow." It should not surprise you, then, to learn that it refers to the family of cattle breeds native to Japan that are used to produce such famed products as Kobe beef, Mishima beef, Matsusaka beef, etc. - literally beef unlike anything most have ever seen. What makes wagyu cattle so special is the tendancy to develop high amounts of intramuscular fat, which is known as marbling. The fat is responsible for giving meat flavor as well as keeping it moist and juicy, so more fat = better meat. Interestingly, wagyu beef contains less artery clogging saturated fat than typical beef, and is rich with heart healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. So eat up.

The quality of a piece of beef is largely determined by the amount of marbling. Japanese Kobe beef is graded on a 12 point marbling scale. USDA Prime, the top US grade available, typically rates only a 5 on the Japanese scale. The highest grades of Japanese beef are more like fat streaked with meat (skip halfway down this page for photos), and can contain as high as 90%fat content! Meat like this should barely kiss heat, otherwise the fat will render out, creating a very expensive puddle. Wagyu cattle are now raised in limited numbers outside of Japan, mostly in Australia and the US, although in the US, they are often crossbred with American Angus cattle.

Ever since that chance enounter, I have been scouring the internet for info about Wagyu, with very little to show for it. They don't have a website (how can a business without a website even exist?). In fact, I could only find one review, but the writer made the unconscionable decision to not order the steak, skipping it in favor of fish. Um... Did anyone point out that this is a steak restaurant? With unusually high quality (not to mention hard to find) beef? The only option left was first-hand recon. I would have to go in myself. Fortunately, I was with some beef hungry friends last month while in HK, so I had the chance to make good on this plan.

The restaurant is located on the ground floor of The Centrium at 60 Wyndham St., a 10 minute walk or so from the new Star Ferry pier. Making the uphill walk to get there is a great way to work up an appetite, not to mention to take preemptive action against all those calories. The restaurant is tastefully decorated in typical modern restaurant style, with the front open to the street, giving it a quasi al-fresco kind of feel.

The menu offerings reflect the restaurant's Australian heritage (not like that other place), but within that culinary space are a fairly extensive selection of choices. A wide variety of hot (wagyu steak pie) and cold (wagyu carpaccio) appetizers are available, as well as many non-beef alternatives. Beef is priced by the cut and portion size (8, 10, or 12 oz). Australian Wagyu is, obviously, the house specialty, but there were other types of beef (Black Angus, for one) available as well. I was somewhat surprised to see that there were only a few different cuts of steak available. New York strip, my personal favorite (and likewise that of many beef aficionados), was inexplicably not on the menu (I asked the server). It was also surprising that the server didn't offer any explaination of the menu or the restaurant's namesake beef. I guess I expected them to showcase this fine product a bit more, especially with steak prices topping $100US. I took a pass on the filet (perhaps the most overrated piece of cow flesh) and settled on the 10 oz sirloin (don't even think about going past medium rare with meat like this). To accompany the steak, I added an order of the garlic-chilli chips and a bowl of mushy pea mash.

After a reasonable wait, the food was brought to the table. A selection of house made mustards and condiments was brought out to the table to accompany the steak. Everything looked fantastic, but I immediately realized that I had gone overboard on the potatoes. Not sure if I missed it on the menu or not, but I didn't realize that the steak would be served with roasted potatoes (and arugula salad, too, which was a nice touch). The garlic chilli chips looked great, so I was glad I had ordered those, but I had expected the mushy pea mash to be a pile of smashed peas, not mashed potatoes flavored with peas. At any rate, the server perhaps could have thought about my selections a bit and checked with me that all these spuds were on purpose.

You can see how juicy this steak is from this photo. Also on the plate are some mustard, the roasted potatoes, tomatoes, arugula salad, and portabello mushroom (it's hiding under the steak).

But potatoes schmotatoes - this dinner was all about the beef. One bite and I knew that this was truly exceptional meat. Tender and juicy, the steak melted in my mouth. Each bite delivered a buttery richness full of incredible beefy flavor. As nice as the mustards were, I preferred to eat the steak straight up, so that I could enjoy it unadulterated (what can I say, I'm a beef purist). Underneath the steak was a grilled portobello mushroom. It tasted fine, but didn't really enhance the steak for me. The arugula salad was nice and peppery, dressed with a mild vinaigrette. The chips were every bit as delicious as their crispy, golden exterior promised, with a mild chilli zing to tickle the tongue. I did also think the mash was tasty, but I would probably try something different next time for variety's sake.

These garlic chilli chips were totally GBD

Mushy pea mash was tasty - just not what I thought it would be

All said and done, I really enjoyed the food I ate here. The steak was fantastic, and the chips were also memorable. The pricing is comparable to other high end steakhouses in Hong Kong, perhaps even a little less. I would have liked to see a few more cuts of steak offered, however, and I just feel the service could be a little more in tune with the customer's needs. I would eat here again though without hesitation.

Bottom line: If you want super juicy, fantastic tasting steak, this place is worth a try.

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A Taste of Hunan

I was in Asia once again last month, but I'm just now getting around to posting some photos. I spent the first few days in China, briefly hit Hong Kong, and finally ended up in Kyoto, Japan for some sightseeing.



While in China, I was fortunate to have dinner with a friend from Hunan province. We were able to find a random Hunan style restaurant in downtown Dongguan City. Many westerners have heard of Sichuan (sometimes spelled Szechwan) cuisine, which is often misrepresented in American Chinese restaurants, but nevertheless correctly known for it's fiery spiciness. Most, however, are less familiar with Hunan cuisine, who's spiciness is equal to, if not stronger than that of Sichuan. I had never had the opportunity to eat Hunan style cooking before, but I was in for an interesting experience.

I took a few photos to give you an idea of what we had.

Beef, fresh chilli peppers, and cilantro - a fresh, light, and tasty dish (and oh yeah, spicy to boot).

Pig tails with fresh chillis, garlic, nuts, and an unknown Chinese vegetable - This dish had great flavor. The chunks of pig tail, however, had fairly tough skin, a microscopic layer of meat, and then a core of bone, so they were not exactly going to fill anyone up.

Duck feet with intestines and vegetables, served in a sizzling iron wok - No one eats duck feet to get full. There's maybe one or two bites of skin that can be gnawed off of these things before you are just pretending. It wasn't clear from the menu that this dish was going to have innards, so the intestines were somewhat of a surprise. Amazingly, despite all this, this dish had outstanding flavor. I can't tell you what was in that sauce, but I can tell you that it would make just about anything taste awesome.

Whole shrimp, fried and covered with 3 types of hot peppers - This dish was pretty straightforward. Heat was provided by the heaping mound of fresh cherry peppers, dried chillis, and the mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorn (typically used in Sichuanese cooking, oddly enough). I think this dish would make great stadium food - it's tasty, convenient to eat, and easy to pop down one after another. Of course, the heat adds up pretty fast.

For more Hunan food fun, see my report on Mao's Family Restaurant (Mao Jia Fan Dian).

Makin' Bacon

Attention vegetarians - STOP READING THIS POST!!!!

Danger lies ahead. Not like many veg-heads are probably lurking on a blog with this title, but in all fairness, I have to offer a warning that today's subject matter may - well, might just cause you to question the validity of your own existance, or at the very least, induce a debilitating feeling of jealousy. And I just can't be responsible for that.

For the rest of us, we are talking, of course, about the great elixir of life - bacon.

Recently I bought Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie, a brilliant guide for the home cook - turned meat man. This well crafted collection of principles and techniques is a veritable encyclopedia of meat artistry. Techniques like salt curing, sausage making, confit are all in there, as well as a vital explaination of food safety concerns and how to avoid them. If you are at all interested in trying your hand at these time honored techniques, I can't reccomend this book enough. Although there are some complex and time consuming projects, there are plenty of relativly straightforward items to get you started. This was precicely the information I needed to take my meat game from foolish novice to... um, slightly less foolish novice.

Bacon caught my eye, as it doesn't require any special aging environment (still waiting for the basement to cool for the winter season). It's also still warm enough to justify standing outside for a few hours to babysit the smoker. Plus, who doesn't like bacon? There is a lot of time involved, but most of it is just waiting. It's acutally not too hard to make. Simply get a slab of pork belly, apply a cure, store in the fridge for a week, rinse and dry, smoke the cured belly (now called fresh bacon), and eat. See? Simple. The cure has some flexibility in the flavor department (maple syrup? black pepper? molasses?), but the elements of salt, curing salt, and brown sugar are essential to ensure safety and balance of flavor.

So after all this trouble, you ask, was it worth it? As my Scottish friend would say, it was the dog's bollocks!!! Rich with bacon-y goodness, it posessed a depth of flavor that is lacking in typical commercial bacon. Already, I'm thinking about my next batch once the 5 lbs I made are gone. At this rate, it might be just a couple of weeks away! I don't have to tell you, but the eating options are limitless. In the past week alone, I've used my bacon for:

- plain old bacon strips
- cobb salad
- chicken club sandwich (avocado makes this perfect)
- bacon and shrimp chowder
- and of course, the classic BLT

Let the photo essay begin!

Fresh pork belly, 5lbs - I used organic meat from a trusted supplier. Hey, if you're going through all the trouble of making your own bacon, the least you can do is start with the best possible meat.

Applying the cure. Special thanks to my daughter Elisabeth. Making homemade bacon at 2 years old... I'm so proud!

The cure is applied and rubbed in. Now the waiting starts.

7 days later... The curing is complete. Cure has been washed off and meat placed on an elevated rack to dry. A tacky, dry skin is called a pellicle, and is critical in order for the meat to absorb the smoke flavor.

Smoking in my cheap smoker. Hey - it gets the job done. I used cherry wood (happened to have on hand) and placed a pan of apple cider inside. I tried to maintain the temp at about 125. The bacon smoked for about 4 hours.

Out of the smoker. Looking good...

Ohhhhhhhhh... Aaaahhhhh. Excuse me. I just had a moment.

After baking in the oven (400 deg, about 10 minutes).

With this bacon, a BLT has never been better. Don't mess with a classic - bacon, crisp lettuce, fresh tomato, mayo, and, of course, decent bread.