The A5 Kobe at Seryna Restaurant in Japan (Natalia Lewandowska)
The A5 Kobe at Tokyo's Seryna Restaurant
Due to the modesty and self-restraint so typical of Japanese men, the manager at Seryna, a famous Tokyo steakhouse, will only admit there is "controversy" over who first started using hot stones to cook the world's most expensive steak. The stones in question are lava rocks that spend eight hours in a kiln reaching temperatures of between 250 C and 300 C, at which point a very pretty woman in a kimono removes one and brings it to your table, where you, in turn, radiate in its bonfire-like heat.
It's what happens next, however, that people are willing to pay $200 to witness. The waitress ties a light brown apron around your neck and lays two strips of A5 Japanese beef—seasoned only with Himalayan rock salt and pepper—onto the rock. Sizzling and spattering begins immediately, and in less than 10 seconds, the first rivulet of melted fat snakes down the face of the stone. The smell of caramelized fat rises like fog and (sooner than anyone expects) the steak is flipped. The meat is perfectly browned.
Not that there was much red there to begin with. A5 is the highest grade the Japanese government bestows on its beef—the best of which is Kobe—and it indicates a level of marbling unknown in North America. Kobe actually looks more like Italian marble than it does meat.
You do not talk while eating steak like this. Food this good demands concentration, and that's just what you do until all the steak is gone. At that point, you notice the rock, sitting there, fat-soaked and smoking. Seryna, the manager says, has been cooking steak this way for over 40 years, and his bashful smile would seem to suggest he is saying that his restaurant did it first.
