Thick Slice Beef Tongue Onigiri

Brand: Onigiri Shop

Cost: 189 yen

Found at: 7-11

Sometimes, you feel a little fancy. Sometimes, you feel like slumming it. And when you feel like having it both ways, there’s beef tongue onigiri. It has all the fancy trimmings and ornate packaging of a much fancier cut, but is still, nevertheless the humble discount meat. In researching how to properly prepare beef tongue, I discovered that the process was both more difficult and more unsettling than I had anticipated – involving upsetting verbs such as “boil” and “peel” – but I must admit that once it has been cooked up, slathered in teriyaki sauce, and wrapped in a rice ball, it’s pretty much the same as any other cut of beef. It’s a bit chewy, I’ll grant you, but tastes fine. I just wish I had not watched the youtube chef tutorials. Some secrets are better left in the kitchen.