$185 beef sandwich goes on sale in New York (fries included)
Have you bought lunch yet? What is it? A sad salad? A soggy sarnie? A cup of cold soup or a slightly slimy pasta pot? Know what you need? The A5 Ozaki. And you need a flight to New York to get it.
Opening today is Don Wagu, a small eaterie run by chef Samuel Clonts on South William Street, NYC, which is set to serve the Big Apple's financial district the most luxurious beef sandwiches on the planet: the 'don' of sarnies, if you will.
Designed predominantly for takeaway customers - though there are six seats at the bar - serious sandwich lovers can get stuck in to three different varieties of 'sando', all containing - yes, you guessed it - prized wagyu beef (that is, beef from specific breeds of Japanese cattle).
Each option presents wagyu beef fried in panko breadcrumbs - katsu-style - served pink, on pain de mie (soft white bread) with the Japanese steak sauce 'tare', made from onions, ginger, saké-cooked garlic, mirin, tamari and black vinegar.
This is presented to customers with a side of fries, tossed in - wait for it - salt and nori. Yup, seaweed. One of our five-a-day? Oh so tenuous (but we'll take it).
The difference between each of the three options comes down to the beef used and therefore, the price. Coming in cheapest is the $28 version called 'The Washugyu', which uses beef from a Japanese-American hybrid; the Tajima and Black Angus.
Next is the 'The A5 Miyazaki Wagyu' which uses miyazaki beef, priced at $75.
But for the heavyweight, the big-timer, it's the A5 Ozaki. Made with beef from a family-run farm in Japan's Miyazaki Pefecture, Ozaki is the only wagyu beef named after the farmer who produces it - Mr. Muneharu Ozaki.
Naturally, it is top class and naturally, top priced: $185 (gulp).
But it is said to melt in the mouth. And it comes in its own wooden box. And really, who wouldn't fork out £140 for that?
