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- [Ignis] That's it.
- [Noctis] What's what?
- [Ignis] I've come up with a new recipe.
- [Noctis] Can't wait to try it.
- [Alvin] Hello there.
Welcome back to another episode of "Arcade with Alvin."
This time we're gonna be taking on the Wagyu Katsu sandwich
from "Final Fantasy XV".
The Garulessa is a strong and powerful beast
You can fight in "Final Fantasy XV"
and its steak is described as very well marbled and tender.
Now, I don't think we have that at the store,
but the closest thing that's equivalent seems
to be A5 Miyazaki Wagyu.
We have here a very expensive
and precious piece of A5 Miyazaki Wagyu ribeye,
which we are going to treat with respect
and make sure that none of this goes to waste.
Now, in my experience, this is usually a nice square
of well marbled beef that has been seasoned, lightly fried
and topped with a nice acidic sauce on toasted milk bread.
A pretty indulgent piece of luxury
that I've never been able to try.
So I guess I'm using this as a way to make it for myself.
To get started, I'm going to carefully
and nervously cut this ribeye into nice little square
patties for breading.
All these little pieces that are gonna get cut off here are
definitely not going to waste.
We're gonna use them one way or the other
and to make some pretty delicious stuff with it.
Once these nice two squares of Wagyu ribeye get hit
with a little bit of salt and pepper, they're gonna go rest
on a tray and go into the fridge just to firm up a bit.
Now, in the meantime, we're gonna make the Katsu sauce.
This beef is pretty fatty,
which means we need a pretty acidic
and sweet sauce to be able to counterbalance
that and bring out its flavor.
So in a medium sauce pan, I'm combining a quarter cup
of sake with one teaspoon of black pepper, one teaspoon
of onion powder, and one quarter teaspoon of garlic powder.
This is just going to boil it for a little bit so
that the sake can have the alcohol reduced.
Then we're gonna add a quarter cup of Worcestershire sauce,
three tablespoons of ketchup, two tablespoons of honey,
a tablespoon of whole grain mustard,
and a tablespoon of oyster sauce.
This cooks in the pan until everybody starts
to reduce and once it gets sticky,
This is just gonna sit off to the side.
Now the breading for our steak is pretty simple.
We're gonna go pretty traditional with a little bit
of all-purpose flour, patting it dry, making sure
that the excess flour falls off.
Going in briefly into an egg bath
and then into Panko breadcrumbs, making sure
to press Panko into every square inch.
Now, once both of these beautiful meat squares have been
breaded, they're also gonna go sit just so
that the Panko can hydrate and everything becomes more
cohesive so that it doesn't fall apart in the fryer.
This is a can of Spam.
Now, in the game, there's also a dish called the Cannedwich
with a very similar treatment
except instead of Wagyu, it's Spam.
When you really think about it,
they're actually quite similar,
even though they're on the opposite ends
of the price spectrum.
Spam is a mixture of meat
and emulsified fat that is very high in the fat department,
whereas a Wagyu ribeye is somewhat similar in terms
of the fat content compared to the meat ratio,
and even if you put them side by side,
they do look somewhat similar.
Spam is just pantry Wagyu, so I thought it would be fun
to make the Cannedwich too
as part of of this episode.
We're gonna give this a very similar treatment.
Take the meat out, cut it into nice square patties.
We're not gonna bread this one
because in the game it doesn't seem like this one
was breaded and fried, just pan seared.
There's enough fat in it
that's gonna help it sear all of its sides without needing
to add any additional fat.
This is actually very satisfying.
It's such a nice firm block
that when you flip over the sear,
it's perfectly smooth on all sides,
which I would say has an advantage over the expensive meat
that we can cook sometimes.
For the bread, I brought some of my favorite
fluffy milk bread from the store.
Gonna give this a quick toast in the pan with no oil
because some of the sugars allow this bread
to toast a lot quicker than normal bread.
Once this is nice and toasted,
we're gonna lay down two slices of American cheese,
one per bread slice, because that's
what I believe is in the game,
and it does go with the theme of trying to save money.
We're gonna go ahead and plop a little bit
of our Katsu sauce that we made earlier
that should hopefully go well
with the really fatty Spam and cheese.
Then we're gonna put the top piece of bread on,
and give this a nice trim along the edges so that we end up
with a nice presentation of four little cube bites
of Spam sandwich.
Now visually, this looks like something you could serve for
around 20 bucks at a restaurant,
which in my book means this is a win.
Let's cut it up and see how it tastes.
I've forgotten the fact
that we are still technically eating a large block of Spam
and it is very, very salty.
I don't think this is supposed to be eaten this way,
but hey, eight outta 10.
Alright, back to the Wagyu sandwich.
I'm gonna mix three tablespoons of Kewpie mayo
with our Katsu sauce because that is one common technique
I've seen in some of these Katsu sandwiches,
and I think that would be a nice sort of element.
We're gonna fry our now chilled
and breaded boggy patties in an oil of 350 degrees.
This is very short, only for about a minute total.
We just want to be able to heat the beef until it's nice
and medium rare to rare.
Once these are nice and golden brown,
I'm gonna take these out and put 'em on a rack over a sheet
tray so any excess oil and fat can drip off.
In the meantime, I'm gonna do the same thing
and toast two slices of milk bread in a dry pan
just until they're nice and brown on both sides.
To assemble, we're gonna place one
of our Wagyu patties right in the middle
and then plop a good serving
of our Wagyu Katsu sauce right on top.
Then the top piece of bread goes on,
give it a nice little squish
and trim the corners so that we end up
with a very clean cut Wagyu Katsu sando.
Don't worry, those edges were definitely eaten up.
Now, visually, this is pretty stunning.
The bread also seemed to compress
to a very thin layer based off
of the weight and how fluffy it was.
Let's cut this into really small pieces
and see how this tastes.
Now to be honest, this was way too rich, just kind
of tasted fat, which technically is what the sandwich is.
Not only are you eating marbled Wagyu,
you're frying it in a little cutlet form.
I think for this really nice piece of meat,
I would've preferred to just pan fry it.
There was no need to bread it
and give it another layer of richness,
which probably is better for thinner
and maybe less expensive cuts of meat
that could use that richness.
The sauce wasn't mandatory.
This thing had so much fat
that if you didn't eat it without it,
you'd probably just fall asleep immediately.
But let's fry up the other one, make another sandwich
and not trim the edges
to get a nice triple decker cross section.
Even though I don't think I could finish this,
it still looks quite beautiful to me.
Remember those trimmings from earlier?
We're gonna go bring them out
and take off any huge large fat chunks
that were just pure fat and remove them.
Maybe save them for some potatoes or something.
With the rest of the really nice marbled meat,
we're gonna take these little off shape and bits
and we're gonna throw them directly into the pan
to give them nice sear.
As you can see, you don't need to put any oil in the pan.
These have plenty built in.
Once these are definitely nice and seared on all sides,
we're gonna go ahead and take these out
and use the remaining fat
to cook in some nice scrambled eggs, three eggs, pinch full
of salt, throw them in the pan until they're nice
and softly scrambled and split this up to go
and make two sandwiches right on a bed
of nice fluffy toasted milk bread.
Now with the seared off Wagyu that we have from
before, we're gonna cut these again in a smaller pieces
because I still think there's a little too much fat
in here for my liking.
We're gonna go ahead and sear these
until they get crispy on all edges
and have released even more fat.
Once we drain these and take them out, we're gonna go ahead
and caramelize some oyster sauce.
Now, this is a pretty salty
but flavorful sauce you can find in Asian supermarkets,
and we're gonna follow that up with
a heavy drizzle of honey.
Once this gets nice and sticky
and bubbly, we're gonna throw back in our nice
and seared Wagyu pieces and add in some black pepper.
This essentially is a quick version of black pepper steak.
You got salt, you got flavor, you got sugar,
and you got a little bit of black pepper
to help give it a little bit of spice.
We're gonna take this and evenly divide it onto our beds
of fluffy, soft scrambled eggs.
Then we're gonna give them their designated bread cover
and cut them open.
Even though the cross section might not
be as pretty as the other ones,
this by far tastes the best.
To me, Wagyu is a luxury ingredient,
and if you have the privilege of buying it, it needs
to be treated well and with the right things.
Just eating it like a steak with some salt
and pepper is a little too much.
I like it in smaller pieces with the sauce that has sugar
and some spice and some acidity
and something like a fluffy egg
and some bread to really harmonize it.
To me, Wagyu is almost like a seasoning
to elevate other ingredients.
I guess you could call this one a steak
and eggs Wagyu sandwich.
Oh, I think it is now time for the nap.
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