Eight years ago, upon my arrival in Chicago, I ate a meal at The Chop House. It was my first and last dinner there. I never had the desire to return again, There are many far better steakhouses to be found in Chicago.

Kennyz wrote:

ld111134 wrote:If the beef wasn't true Kobe, then what they are doing is very, very wrong.

Oh, it definitely wasn't. They get away with it because there is a company that uses American Wagyu cattle and brands itself KBA or "Kobe Beef America". So when restaurants say they are serving Kobe beef, they can argue that they weren't lying. At all but the very highest end places where the chefs are smuggling real Kobe in for special guests who pay much higher prices than you paid, this is what you're getting when you buy "Kobe". It's a scam that's really not worth the money.

The waitress did state that it was Kobe beef from Texas, so I knew from the "gitgo" it wasn't true Japanese Kobe.

Kennyz wrote:
At all but the very highest end places where the chefs are smuggling real Kobe in for special guests who pay much higher prices than you paid, this is what you're getting when you buy "Kobe".

Yo, you can get smuggled Kobe beef in America, specifically Chicago? Where can I get this? So two summers ago, I went to Kobe in Japan and I had what is definitely in the conversation of the best steak of my entire life. We asked them if it was possible for us to buy steak somewhere and ship it to ourselves in the US. We were told this is not possible. I would probably pay a ridiculous amount of money if I could actually get one of these steaks somewheres. I also realize after reading my post I may sound like a crackhead, but the steak was really good.

I've ordered from this guy previously
http://www.1-800-kobebeef.net/
First order got stuck in DHL warehouse during snow storm. Re-sent order, no problem.
It's the real deal if you order A5.
But don't cook as a USDA Prime steak but cut into cubes and brown each side to get maximum flavor.
We also sliced one and had as sashimi.
There is nothing like it in the world!-Dick

Oh my gawd, thanks for that link.

I realize this is in the "eating out" forum, but for those of you wondering about the dry aging process and how dry aging compares to wet aging, Serious Eats' J. Kenji López-Alt wrote this outstanding piece on the subject, with instructions on how to dry age beef at home.

To summarize, he considers dry aged beef far superior to wet aged beef (the latter he comes close to calling a fraud). He also describes the differences in terms of length of dry aging time: at 14-28 days, the beef is obviously more tender, although the changes in flavor are less significant; at 28-45 days, far more flavor development; and at 45-60 days there is significant funkiness. He notes that most people tested preferred the beef at 45 days, but that many were put off by the strong flavors of beef aged beyond that.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/the- ... ?ref=title

The best article I have read on dry aging at home.
For me the amount of time, effort, mini fridge and results indicate that dry aging at home properly is not for me.
I just purchased a locally raised steer and had the processor hang for 21 days. This is NOT dry aging.
As the referenced article properly states, you must dry age Primals. I thought of having the Primals then removed and having the processor age but I have concluded it's just not worth the effort.
What I have found is that this locally grown(Wisconsin, Kenosha County) beef is so 'clean' tasting compared to the bloody taste with factory beef that it is quite appealing and every cut has been superb.
I would Grade the finished product as middle of the road USDA Choice from the marbling. The grower has asked if i wanted the next one finished longer on corn and my initial assessment was yes but now after a few months of consuming this beef, in the interests of health, I think its fine. We grind the trim ourselves and the ground beef has no water in it compared to cuts of Round of Sirloin we would purchase from Sam's for grinding ourselves.
Frankly if I want a Dry Aged Steak I will go to Burke's. Burke's converted a lower level room into an aging room with humidifier, cooler and wall of salt blocks. I suspect that this combination just happened to be an ideal environment for dry aging, no UV lights or anything else, it just works.
The article referenced as I said is the best I have read on Dry Aging at home, I have just gone a different way to avoid factory beef.-Dick

Interesting thread...Too bad the OP never came back to report on their meal. Would have liked to hear their impressions.

I have traveled all over Europe and never had what I would consider a very good steak in Europe...couple decent ones but nothing that compares to the steaks I have had in the states.

I haven't traveled Europe much at all, preferring the more civilized environs of the Middle East and South/Southeast Asia, but one of the best steaks I've ever had was in Paris at a place whose name I can't recall. It was served medium rare, with tallow cooked fries and strong mustard after an appetizer of intense steak tartar. True, if you want steak aged to mimic the flavor and smell of feces, served raw, you should look elsewhere than Europe. Probably Las Vegas or New York. I also had some remarkable beef in Bolivia. Again, not served raw and rotten.

I was really interested in Kenji Alt's article on aging primals; previously he had very negative comments on aging steaks. I never understood the concept of aging a steak. Their supplier also claimed that home dry-aging was not a realistic probability given the chance of infections and the high humidity of home refrigerators. This last claim in contradicted by academic and industry article on commercial dry-aging which uses high humidity. We also know that self-defrosting fridges have unusually low humidity.

I found Kenji Alt's article a wonderful read. His use of a small fridge allows higher humidity and isolation from bacteria and outside flavor.

I have dry-aged at home for 15 years with not a single instance of mold formation or any undesirable odors. I fully agree with the idea of aging over two weeks and having a fat cap. When the fat cap is missing, caul fat make an excellent substitute.

The effort is minimal but the loss of fridge space can be a factor. Finding the correctly butchered primal is the hardest part.

It is also interesting to consider the idea of mincing the trimmings to be roasted with aromatics. The resultant cracklin's are said to be wonderful. I can't wait!

Tim

Habibi wrote:I haven't traveled Europe much at all, preferring the more civilized environs of the Middle East and South/Southeast Asia, but one of the best steaks I've ever had was in Paris at a place whose name I can't recall. It was served medium rare, with tallow cooked fries and strong mustard after an appetizer of intense steak tartar. True, if you want steak aged to mimic the flavor and smell of feces, served raw, you should look elsewhere than Europe. Probably Las Vegas or New York. I also had some remarkable beef in Bolivia. Again, not served raw and rotten.

Are you speaking of Le Severo in the 14th? That's where you told me to go and I couldn't get enough of the tartare.

Aye aye, that's the one. Steak was pretty damn good too, no?

Habibi wrote:Aye aye, that's the one. Steak was pretty damn good too, no?

I had the tartare, my girl had the steak, they were both amazing. Also quite affordable for steak in Paris if I remember correctly.

I recently did a side-by-side comparison of the dry-aged ribeye vs natural, at Benny's Chop House. Interestingly, the spinalis - the most flavorful part of the ribeye - seemed the least affected by the aging process. Near as I can figure, since it already has a lot of flavor, the aging process doesn't add much.

In fact, there was only a notable difference in flavor for the third of the steak closest to the bone. The first, outermost third was indistinguishable from one another. The middle third had a slight difference in flavor, but we both agreed it wasn't worth the price difference. It wasn't until we got to the section closest to the bone that we thought it really made a difference.

There's always random variation between steaks (I've had the 75-day ribeye at David Burke six times - three were exquisite, one was very good, and two weren't much different from any other good steakhouse), but I thought it was an interesting result. Clearly, we will have to conduct further experiments to gather a proper sample size. For SCIENCE!