Mystery Meat

On Friday I was invited out to dinner with a few co-workers. The restaurant is called “Namahage” (Demons) and is located up in Roppongi. The restaurant is a bit touristy since the Namahage demons come out later in the evening and scare the diners into being good. Typically, if someone told me they were going to take me to a place like that in the U.S., I’d pass but my co-worker who set up the reservation did two things that piqued my interest. First, he said the price (5000 Yen/U.S. $50) included all you could drink of beer, sake, shōchū and umeshu for two to three hours. More on this later but one of my co-workers and I made sure we got our money’s worth. At one point in the dinner I had a glass of beer and three glasses of different shōchūs in front of me. The second thing my co-worker did was to show me the menu and some of the items we’d be having. One item, in particular, I’ve been searching out and was able to cross off my list of “bizarre foods” to try while in Japan.

The dinner started with a little cup of soup. As typical with many Japanese menu items, there’s always something familiar about the item but on the other hand, the individual components seem completely unfamiliar and unidentifiable. So although the soup had a familiar miso/soy sauce base, it also had an unfamiliar green leafy vegetable matter which my co-workers described as a plant that only grows in the mountain ranges in Japan and I thought had a peppery, spicy flavor (very nice). There was also a sticky, glutinous substance that seemed to float in the middle of the soup cup which if I understood my co-workers was a type of potato or yam that was grated. They then brought out a vegetable plate with ginger dip and a grilled meat and vegetable plate. Both nice but nothing particularly unusual. The next dish was thin slices of raw beef. These were dipped in a mustard sauce. Enjoyable but, once again, not what I would describe as unusual.

Finally, the mystery meat dish I had been waiting for arrived. First visual inspection is nothing unusual as you can see. Beefy looking in appearance but probably not as fresh as could be since the meat is also called “sakuraniku” or “cherry blossom meat” since it should be pink in color. This course was served as “basashi” or as sashimi (raw) slices. The white matter underneath the red slices I first thought was daikon radish slices but upon closer inspection realized I was getting an extra treat as they were also including slices of neck fat(“mmmm, neck fat”) with the sakuraniku. The accompanying sauce was soy sauce and you mixed in sliced green onions along with freshly grated ginger and radish.

Clearly this was a photo op and one of my co-workers, who was not partaking of the basashi, snapped a nice photo of the moment. I did a light dip in the soy sauce and then popped the meat and neck fat into my mouth. Initial impression was that these slices probably could be thinner. Texturally, chewing a thick piece of raw meat and a thicker piece of raw neck fat is not the most pleasant, but overall the taste was okay. It must have been because I tried it twice more. What was the mystery meat? It was horse. Unlike the U.S., many countries do not have a taboo against eating horse. Japan is one of those countries and “when in Rome”, why not give it a try?
After the horse sashimi, there was a pork and noodle dish which was tasty and a nice mango ice cream but both were anti-climatic to the raw horse. Check that food off the list.

Let’s switch from food to drink now.
Joining me for dinner Friday night was one of the Directors in the Marketing Department. In talking with one of my teammates, he explained that he was proud of his drinking capability and wanted to see if he could out drink me. Foolish man but I admire his tenacity. We started drinking beer and we each threw back about three glasses. He decided to change tactics and ordered shōchū (see first Izakaya visit for more about shōchū). The first glass was really crisp and clean. That was my favorite brand of the night. After I threw back the first glass, he then ordered two more types. Those were thrown back in rapid succession. I asked for a beer chaser and he joined me. About this time, we noticed a ruddy glow coming over our co-worker. He then ordered three more glasses, two new shōchūs and a repeat of the first one. I’d like to say I wasn’t feeling the effects but that would be a lie. But I certainly was in much better shape than my co-worker who at this point was well lubricated. I’m pretty sure we had maybe two more after that but I really lost count when the three were placed in front. When we left the restaurant, our other two dining partners excused themselves and went home but not my new drinking partner. We stumbled into an Italian restaurant and polished off two bottles of red wine together. It’s amazing how much better my Japanese was and his English was at this point. Beer, shōchū and red wine, not a good combo, and one I definitely felt in the morning. I got back to my apartment about midnight and was out cold within one minute of my head hitting the pillow. I have a feeling we’ll have a repeat performance in the future.