JAPANESE HOT POT: MARBLED BEEF IN JAPAN. This picture was taken by my son, who is on assignment in Japan this fall.

written by

Drausin Wulsin

posted on

September 12, 2015

JAPANESE HOT POT

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MARBLED BEEF IN JAPAN.

This picture was taken by my son, who is on assignment in Japan this fall.

Wagyu beef must be on the right and a leaner variety on the left. Wagyu beef are fed beer and grains, lounge about in lots, and are treated like royalty, including daily massages and doses of opera.

Our grassfed Red Devons produce meat similar to that on the left. They are not treated like royalty, but lead a robust life out on pasture ingesting and digesting herbaceous plants, as they have over the millennium. Who wants to live like royalty anyway!

I believe the meat on the trays is dipped into hot broth at the center of the table for quick cooking, probably in the silver urn. Perhaps we will be seeing hot pots and Wagyu beef at the farmer's market someday soon.

The picture below is from a friend hiking in the French Alps. It is interesting to note how little grass there is that altitude. The ecosystem appears to be almost that of a desert, yet sheep have been grazing there for hundreds of years. The grazing plan must be well-managed, so as to allow sufficient grass to regenerate.

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Our contribution to international excursion was an 11-hour drive to Ontario, where we found welcome rest, cool breezes, and abundant water, over the past week. We took with us ground beef and lamb with which to make sliders for tomorrow's market. We also took the vacuum packaging machine and labels, and had the sliders all neatly organized for our return across the border.

Well, we learned yesterday morning during our interview with the customs officer that lamb, for some innocuous reason, is a forbidden substance for casual import into the US. So, we were pulled over, and inspected, assessed, drilled, and restrained at the customs counter, while they figured out what to do with bootleggers like us. Our threat was so great, they wouldn't even let us use the rest room. We were finally able to convince them the lamb brought back was the same taken in, so we were not importing contraband in our sliders. For a good while we thought we were in the hot pot ourselves, and would lose our inventory. But we did not, and they finally upgraded our status enough to afford us use of the rest room... What an ordeal!

The good news is we gave two guys with lots of pockets on their pants something to do for about an hour and half. So, tomorrow's sliders are well traveled, highly scrutinized, and are now ready for a comforting home.

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We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Hyde Park Farmers' Market. We will have extra sliders, chickens, and eggs - all of which we ran out of two weeks ago.

We slide forward.


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