- And that's the prized...
A5...
Wagyu beef.
Number one.
- Number one!
- [All] Number one!
- Alright, check it out guys, it's Trevor James.
We're hanging out with John from Only in Japan,
and today's video is an iconic video.
We are going to the home,
the source of udon noodles in Japan,
and then we're finishing up with some of
the best beef in the world.
- You got that right.
We just left Okayama, we're going to Zentsuji,
which is in Kagawa Prefecture,
and we're crossing one of the most beautiful bridges
in the entire country.
- [Trevor] Wow, look at that.
This is taking us directly into the heart of udon country.
- Udon country baby! Shikoku!
- [Trevor] Let's go check it out!
(upbeat music)
- This is it.
- This is it! - The source of udon!
- High five buddy!
Ohhh, we're going straight to the core!
This is going to be so good!
- I love this place because they keep it local.
It hasn't really changed since they founded it
generations ago.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Traditional udon recipe.
Ohhhhh.
Wow!
This is the slurp station.
Whoaaaaaa...
Konnichiwa.
(speaks Japanese) - Konnichiwa.
- [John] Sumimasen. - Wow! Sumimasen.
- Oh, and these are all the noodles!
- And you can see that he's, right now, boiling the udon.
- [Trevor] And we're rolling it out flat over here,
it's the total factory for udon here,
and just boiling them. Wow!
Oh yeah, and we're just going to pull them out!
Miyagawa-san is just the master of udon.
So John, how would you eat these? Hot or cold?
Or you can do both?
- [John] You can do both.
If you eat it hot, you get more of the dashi taste.
If you eat it cold, you get more of the noodle taste.
- [Trevor] And they're just being cut right here.
- [John] That's going straight in!
- [Trevor] Straight in! Wow!
Right in!
And then we can just mix them up.
So with the warm, we're going to get it in the dashi, right?
- You get more of the fish soup stock taste.
When you eat it cold, you get more of the noodle taste.
Both ways are good! - [Trevor] Both ways are good.
But the real...
So is Miyagawa-san, right here. Right?
She takes them right out, and they go into
that cold water here.
Woahhhh!
Into this cold water-
(man speaks Japanese) (John yells back in Japanese)
- [Trevor] Wow!
And then right into the bowls.
Arigato gozaimasu!
Oh, you put it in the water, just warm it up gently.
Cool!
- Next is dashi. - Oh, dashi!
- [John] This is a ebiko, it's one of the base of the dashi.
It's a fish soup stock.
- [Trevor] So you just add any of these on that you like.
Let's get a couple of those.
- [John] They're hanjuku tamago tempura.
- [Trevor] Ohh, egg tempura.
Ohhh, fish cake!
- [John] And right out of the oil in the back.
- [Trevor] First bowl of udon on the world noodle tour.
- Itadakimasu! - Itadakimasu!
- That's what we say before we eat.
- Oh, wow! Look at that!
- [John] The noodles look so slippery.
(slurping noodles)
- Mmmm!
- It's good.
- They just slide down.
- It's really good.
- It's so fresh!
- [John] That is all about the dashi.
- [Trevor] I love how the sardine flavor is mixing in.
- [John] Ohhhh, there it is, look at that!
- [Trevor] You can see it's definitely still oozy.
I really love how they slide down your throat.
You barely need to chew.
That fish cake is fantastic. - I know, right?
- Mmm! With the fried tempura batter on the outside? Mmm!
(slurping noodles)
- Mmmmmm!
- This is a fantastic bowl of udon.
- [John] It is so satisfying.
The dashi, the sardines,
the slippery, slide down your throat udon,
with all the tempura?
It's totally just slurp delight.
- Wow, tempura bamboo!
Life is good.
- Life is very good, my friend.
Mmmm! - Oh, I love that crunch!
Oishii, very oishii.
- Arigato. - Arigato. Thank you.
- I'm so happy. - This is it.
And this is just the beginning.
We're going for more udon,
and then we're going to finish off
with an incredible beef meal.
- Kuroge wagyu A5 Japanese beef!
- Let's do it!
- This is going to be epic, man.
- Let's go check it out guys!
Arigato gozaimasu!
Very oishii, super oishii!
Delicious! - Super oishii!
(speaking Japanese)
- What's your secret ingredient?
(speaking Japanese)
- Love. - Love!
- That's the secret ingredient.
- That's what makes this #1. (laughs)
Love makes this #1 to me.
- Arigato. Thank you.
Next up guys, John and I are just in the rental car.
We are warming up for our wagyu feast tonight.
We are going to go for wagyu beef udon noodles.
- This place is known for its olive production,
and the wagyu here eat olives,
so this is going to be a pretty special bowl.
- Let's go check it out!
Here we are.
Wagyu udon.
- Wagyu-don. - Wagyu-don.
- Konnichiwa.
- So what should we get here John?
- It looks really good, but you know what?
- [Trevor] Of course.
So this must be the classic right here, the wagyu udon.
(murmurs) - [John] Yes.
- Let's get that.
And this is just an incredible scene.
We just walk in to this wagyu beef udon restaurant,
and we're witnessing the magic happening
in front of our eyes.
They're literally cooking up boiling udon
in front of us as we speak, and topping it with wagyu beef.
- [John] You can smell it right now.
- [Trevor] Oh wow, and we're just watching them
cover it in wagyu beef right now.
Wagyu and udon.
- [John] With a half boiled egg. There it is!
- Wagyu udon!
Arigato!
Look at that!
Wagyu udon.
- [John] Wow, the egg-
- [Trevor] Look at that egg on there!
This is it guys.
It's an udon filled day.
We just got tons of udon, along with a plate of tempura.
We've got this dashi soy sauce that you add on over top
to get all in there, so it's smothered.
But I think the first thing we got to do is
just break that egg yolk.
Ohhhh, ho ho ho ho, look at that!
Look how gooey that is!
- You can just mix it in so that egg yolk coats the noodles.
You got to get a beefy, udon-y first slurp.
- I know! It's insane! - Look at that!
(slurping noodles)
- [John] I love how there's a slight sweetness
and chewiness.
You got that sweet dashi, and then you got the fatty
melt in your mouth beef covered in egg yolk
Very good balance of taste, I love it.
Sweet, salty...
- Everything. - It's all in there.
(slurping noodles)
- [John] Combined with the sweetness of the dashi,
combined with the chewiness of the udon...
- That is incredible.
- This is the perfect second udon.
(laughs)
(slurping noodles)
- [John] So, what do you think Trevor?
Is this better than ramen?
- It's like comparing two different universes.
You've got incredible food on both spectrums,
and for the udon, when you've got the best of the best,
compared with the best of the best ramen,
I think they're on the same playing field.
Ramen is the star, usually.
People always love ramen, right?
But this is just as satisfying. Really.
Isn't that amazing?
- That was... really filling.
- Next level wagyu beef.
- Next step, we are on a meat, beef quest right now.
We are driving for the local, premium beef.
- That's right, the local premium beef is called sanuki-gyu.
It's from Kagawa Prefecture.
A5, kuroge wagyu steak-
- [Trevor] Let's go check it out, guys!
Here we are.
A little meat before the next udon.
- Oh yeah!
I'm so pumped.
- This is going to be good!
- Look what's right in front of us!
- Whoaaaaa!
Wow!
The meat locker!
Hi, nice to meet you.
(John speaking Japanese) (man replying in Japanese)
- Konnichiwa. - Konnichiwa.
- So we're going to have wagyu.
- Wagyu.
- A5. - Okay.
(John speaking Japanese)
- Arigato gozaimasu.
And the grill is just right over here.
Let's check it out guys!
Ohhh, there's the meat!
- [John] Look at all the marbling!
- [Trevor] Oh ho!
Wagyu.
- [John] All different cuts.
You can see the different levels of marbling and fat.
We got the sirloin, tongue-
- [Trevor] So it looks like we have
a ton of selection to try. - [John] Yes!
The moment of truth...
- [John] That marbling is just insane!
- [Trevor] Beautiful.
This is going to be a life changing bite of flesh.
- Welcome to the wonderful world of
A5 kuroge wagyu my friend,
because you're life is going to
change tonight. - Wow!
- [Trevor] And we're just starting the slicing now.
- [John] Look at that!
- [Trevor] Oh my, it's so marbled!
- [Both] Ohhhhhhhhh!
- [Trevor] Wow! Look at that slice!
And that's the prized
A5
wagyu
beef.
Number one.
- Number one!
- [All] Number one.
- Wow. - Oishii.
- Oishii? - Oishii.
(chuckles)
- So, chef just pulled out a few different cuts for us
to show us the variety of the marbling here.
The meat station here...
Japan is just full of delicious food,
and meat is one of the top things to try.
And here he comes!
Ohhhhh ho!
Arigato gozaimasu!
Oh wow!
Look at that!
- [John] This is unreal.
- [Trevor] Look at all the different cuts!
Beautiful.
Arigato gozaimasu!
- [John] This is such an incredible plate
because you can see they've labeled it.
The presentation is beautiful.
You know exactly what the cuts are here,
so when you try it, you know what you're eating.
- [Trevor] I'm just loving the marbling on
these incredible slices.
- [John] It's a beautiful pattern, right?
- [Trevor] Wow.
That pineapple cut of the tongue, look at that!
That's just going to melt right in your mouth.
Ohhh, that is just pure beauty.
And this is just the beginning, right?
We still have to season this.
- There just showing us a little bit of it,
this is teasing us.
- Wow!
That's wagyu!
Ohhhhhh! - Fire!
- Arigato gozaimasu!
Here we go!
Wow, look at that marble!
- [Both] Ohhhhhhhh.
- [Trevor] I don't think I've ever seen
a more perfect piece of meat.
And I just love how the smoke kind of goes straight up
into that funnel, it's so satisfying to watch.
You can watch the pink slowly fading.
Look at the juices just glistening on that grill!
And the smoke coming up into that funnel!
And there they are, the (foreign language)
- [John] It looks so juicy!
And the fat's just glistening around the cut.
- Let's try it out. - Itadakimasu!
- Cheers! - Itadakimasu!
- Mmmmmm!
- Ohhh. Oh!
- [Trevor] Look at the pink there!
Isn't that incredible?
- It is really incredible.
- You barely need any seasoning on it,
that flavor- - Right, exactly!
- So naturally smooth and umami.
I can't believe the flavor in these meats!
Oh, that's the tongue right there,
that's the pineapple tongue!
- [John] Slide that on nice and gently.
- [Trevor] Ohhh, the tenderness is just showing on these.
- [John] It's off the scale delicious.
- [Both] Wowwwwwwwww.
- Meat lovers' destination.
Ohhhh!
Oooooh!
Mmmm...
You don't even need to chew.
You just put it on your tongue
and it literally dissolves like butter.
- [John] This is the best of the best of the tenderloin,
right here.
This is unreal, this whole meal,
and I just got a piece of tongue right off the grill.
We're just having a meat feast right now.
But do you understand about the marbling, right?
Why this is A5?
So A5 and A4 are just standards.
The 'A' represents the yield,
which is the percentage of cuttable meat
on the kuroge wagyu.
The number represents the marbling standard.
BMS, which is 'Beef Marbling Standard',
so, if it's a 5, that means it's very high in marbling.
- So John, you've got the chateaubriand,
and here is the tongue.
This is going to be and iconic taste.
- [John] Let's do this!
- Mmmm!
Ohhh....
Mmmmm!
Isn't that insanely delicious?
- It's like an explosion of juice from the fat in it.
- And that tongue,
I like the tongue because it has a little springiness to it,
but it's still juicy.
Oh, and he just brought some beef sashimi!
- [John] Over rice!
- [Trevor] It's like a beef sushi!
Isn't that beautiful?
- It's really incredible with the blowtorch.
I love anything that's been blowtorched.
But look at the glistening fat on it!
Look at that!
- [Trevor] So this is literally like beef sushi.
And we can just go right in with our hands.
- [John] Let's do it.
- Wagyu beef nigiri.
Let's try it out.
- Mmmmm!
- Oh wow!
Mmmm! - It's really good!
And the quality of the rice is really good with it too.
They use premium rice.
- Premium.
It literally just falls apart.
We got the best of the best going on right here.
Look at this guys.
Sirloin, toploin, tongue, it's all here.
Finish up this beef, and go for
a late night bowl of curry udon.
- You got space for that!? - Yeah! Let's do it!
- Let's do it!
- [Trevor] Arigato gozaimasu! - Arigato.
- [Trevor] Oishii! - Arigato.
- [Trevor] Super oishii.
- Arigato gozaimasu.
(speaking Japanese)
- Wasn't that life changing?
Let's go for udon!
(laughs) - Let's do it!
Okay! Okay!
- This is so much fun today. - It's been great.
- Wow. And right up here is our final stop.
- One more!
- The curry udon.
- This is exciting. - Konnichiwa. Konnichiwa.
(man speaking Japanese)
- [Trevor] Curry tempura udon.
- [John] They have it.
- Let's get the curry tempura udon.
- Alright, let's do it.
- Okay. Okay. - Curry tempura.
- [Trevor] Oh wow. This is incredible,
and we're just going to cut up the udon right now.
- [John] And it's going to go right into the cauldron,
right over here.
So it's just getting folded,
and it's going to be cut right under this blade.
Isn't this amazing?
- [Trevor] Wow. There it is, perfectly cut,
and we can see how these udon are going right in the bowls.
Those are going to get sent out covered in curry.
Wow! This is unreal!
Oh, and just covering it in those green onions.
This is an awesome day of udon.
- [John] And the meat on it. Look at the meat!
- We just witnessed the curry beef udon.
- [John] Oh, and these are ours here.
- [Trevor] Wowwwwwwww.
And then the tempura is going to come right on top.
This is the real magic.
- [John] Look at the curry udon in the back.
- [Trevor] This is what we ordered here, isn't it?
- [John] Yeah, that's the tempura curry
(background noise drowns out John)
- [Trevor] Look at that!
We got green onions, and curry, and udon!
Arigato gozaimasu! - Hai.
- Look at those!
It's unbelievably aromatic.
That brown curry sauce.
Look at how thick that curry is.
- [John] Let's try it out.
(slurping noodles)
- Mmm!
Oh wow.
Oishii.
- Oishii.
- That is oishii.
And look at that big shrimp tempura,
steaming right out of the oil.
Mmmmm!
- [John] That is extremely satisfying with the crunch.
You can just dip it in that curry, right?
- [Trevor] This is a really nice finish to our
udon and meat journey.
- Nothing better than getting the food at the origin,
you know?
- Right at the source. - Right at the source.
- We're getting curry udon at the source of udon, in Japan.
Honestly, Japan is such a great place for food and curry.
I was really surprised to learn,
the first time we came to Japan,
that curry is so popular here.
And this really makes sense, why people love it so much,
because they do a really good job of it.
That's one of the best bowls of noodles
we've had on our noodle journey.
- Now I know why people were lining up for this.
(laughs)
(slurping noodles)
- [Trevor] And it's really just something so satisfying
about curry, it really just goes so well here with the udon.
It's the spices that give you that warm,
happy feeling inside.
You can eat it all the time; it never gets old.
What an amazing day!
Thank you John!
You guys got to go check out John's YouTube channel,
Only in Japan.
Hit the subscribe button, subscribe to his channel
and the bell notification button as well,
so you don't miss any of his awesome videos from Japan.
Thanks a lot buddy. - My pleasure.
Thanks for coming!