Wagyu, Kobe, and Matsusaka beef is usually on the minds of visitors to Japan. These well known brands of Japanese beef are on their must try list of foods to eat. While not a brand of beef, but rather a cut of beef, rarely does the word, gyūtan (牛タン) come to mind. While gyūtan is available throughout Japan at yakiniku restaurants, where meat is grilled over a Japanese style barbeque, Sendai is the original home of gyūtan and where the dish is the most well known and popular. In Sendai you can still eat at the restaurant, where in 1948, the dish was developed. [1] Sendai is also the home to many restaurants that only serve gyūtan. While this article is not about the original restaurant where the dish originated, Gyūtan Tsukasa (牛タン店 司) is a typical Sendai gyūtan restaurant serving this dish.
The dish, consisting of pieces of thinly sliced beef tongue cooked over a charcoal grill, is one of least known of Japan's signature foods that visitors must try. The standard serving consists of grilled tongue and pickled vegetables, but is more commonly ordered as part of a set menu (ていしょく, teishoku), which also includes oxtail soup and mugi gohan (麦御飯, steamed white rice with barley). Variations on the set meal include increasing the amount of grilled tongue by 1.5- to 2 times.
Please continue reading the article on my 2018 and 2019 visits to Gyūtan Tsukasa to read about my grilled tongue meals and to see more photographs.
