Guide 2 the Good Life

Let’s convert the price of Kobe Beef from Yen to US Dollars…

Kobe beef is quite popular in America right now, for it’s slightly sweet taste and extremely fatty composition that is so soft, and gives the meat a whitish look and texture more like foie gras than normal beef. You can find “Kobe Beef” on many fine dining menus. But the funny thing is, you’ve probably never had it…even if you’ve ordered it at a ritzy eatery. I’ll explain everything you ever wanted to know about Kobe beef and I’ll convert the price in the picture, after the jump!

I took that picture above in Tokyo, in the Ginza district’s fancy Mitsukoshi food department. The price converts to about $450 US Dollars per pound. Yes, you read that correctly. This is on the high end of what Kobe Beef should typically cost because this is one of the most prime cuts (look at the fatty marbling), and it’s one of the most expensive stores in Tokyo. The range can be anything from $100-500 USD for real Kobe Beef.

Real Kobe beef is generally not available in America, even if your steak claims to be. Many American ranchers have even taken the Kobe cattle lineage and cross bred it with regular cows to cut costs of buying/raising purebreds. Though it produces quite a tender steak, it’s not legitimately Kobe beef.

Kobe beef comes from a special breed of cattle, cultivated for centuries in the Kobe prefecture of Japan for it’s special fat content. The cows generally live like kings, fed an organic diet of grains and sake and beer, which is said to tenderize the meat. Then, the meat must be slaughtered within the Kobe boundaries to receive the official designation.

What really pumps up the price however is simply the cost of the real estate it took to raise the cows. Japan has a mountainous terrain, and any available flatland highly valuable. Another factor related to this is the difficulty and cost of shipping meat and supplies from Kobe to other parts of the country (and the rest of the world), once again due to the geography of the region.

But this beef is a delicacy and since it’s so fatty, it is only consumed in very small portions. So it’s not like you would realistically eat a pound of this stuff in one sitting. But I won’t stop you from trying!