The best dishes I have ever eaten

There’s this song by Brandy that starts with “Have you ever loved somebody so much / It makes you cry / Have you ever needed something so bad / You can't sleep at night / Have you ever tried to find the words / But they don't come out right”. That sounds like an exaggeration, but that was how I felt when I ate my favorite dish.

I’m a self-proclaimed foodie and I love to eat. I’ve had a lot of very good dishes from various cuisines, cheap and expensive. However, there was maybe only one dish that has ever brought tears to my eyes and left me speechless.

Allow me to take you on a journey back in time, when my family came all the way from Canada to visit me in Japan and we decided to meet up in Osaka to travel around the Kansai area together. Now, Osaka is famous for food like okonomiyaki and takoyaki, and I do love those, but my favorite dish is far superior to either one of those. The best thing I’ve ever had in my life was something that Kobe is famous for. Actually, it was more the ingredient than the “dish” itself.

My father, also a foodie, decided to take my entire family to a fancy teppanyaki restaurant in Kobe, and ordered A4 and A5 Kobe beef. It was the most expensive meal I’ve ever had, and not that I paid, but it was worth every penny, or yen in this case.

The preparation of the dish itself was simple, just meat cooked on a searing hot plate. A4-A5 ranked wagyu has amazing marbling, and a lot of flavor in the meat itself. As such, it only needs to be seasoned with salt and a dash of pepper. It’s usually served with salt, a light, sweet soy sauce-based sauce for grilled meat, or a vinegar-based sauce or lemon juice if you want to add any flavors. When you try a high quality meat, you should first try it without any sauce, so you can truly enjoy the meat’s flavor.

Oh boy, it was a flavor and texture I’d never tasted in my life.

As I said earlier, I was literally at a loss for words. Everyone in my family just silently had our first few bites, savoring every little bit of it. The even marbling made the meat so tender and juicy that it basically just melted in my mouth. It was like heaven in my mouth. With every bite, a mix of emotions welled up inside me. I felt so touched, so lucky to be able to taste it that I almost felt guilty. “Did I deserve this?” “Is it really okay for me to eat something so amazing?”

I felt highly satisfied when I finished the best dish, or meal, of my life. As with any good meal, it also made me a bit sad when it had to come to an end. The ingredients and restaurant were top-notch, but I think the part that truly made it a good dish was the fact that I was able to share the experience with my favorite people on the planet ? my family.

I don’t know when I’ll ever get to eat such good food again, but I know that every meal I have with my family and close friends will be almost as good.

Loki

Vocabulary

self-proclaimed (adj.) ? said or announced about oneself
foodie (n) ? a person who loves food and is very interested in different types of food
worth every penny (idiom) ? deserving of the money that an item, experience, etc. cost
season (v) ? to improve the flavor of food by adding salt, herbs, or spices when cooking or preparing it
at a loss for words (idiom) ? unable to think of anything to say
top-notch (adj.) ? of the highest quality