Origami: A Good Place to Try Beef 'Sashimi'

One of the latest trends in Japan is niku zushi. It's basically sushi that is topped with raw meat (usually beef or horse) instead of fish. For many, the sound of eating raw meat may make you apprehensive, but at Origami, a 10 minute walk from Nagoya Station, you can try a version that's not quite raw and will give you an idea of what meat sashimi is like.

The items on the menu here say sashimi fuu. This fuu means "in the syle of". So it may not be exactly sashimi but it is a similar take on it.

Beef, sashimi-style

It looks raw doesn't it? It's actually been passed through a very low temp to get this effect. The restaurant recommends using their slightly sweet soy sauce which goes very well with the red meat. It's just like in Kyushu where they dip their horse sashimi (basashi) in a sweeter than normal soy sauce. Eating this meat 'sashimi', you can enjoy the flavour of the fat and meat as opposed to the juices when you eat warmed, grilled meat. 

Beef liver, sashimi-style

Here, we have liver that is served to look and taste like sashimi. Beef liver is now prohibited by law to be served raw in restaurants, so this is a really good dish mimicking the sashimi version. Sprinkle salt on the slices that have been drizzled with sesame oil for a crunchy texture and to bring out the umami. It was a common way to eat beef liver, and the combination goes so well together.

Uni niku yukke-style

Topping beef with sea urchin is another trend that started a few years ago but is still apparent. Yukke is originally a Korean dish made by mixing strips of raw beef with a gochujang-based sauce. I guess it can be considered a kind of steak tartare. At this restaurant, the seasoning is more of a Japanese style sauce that is sweeter and soy sauce-based, and this meat also although looks raw, is yukke-fuu. From the photo you can tell that it uses a lot of the fatty part of the meat so you get a lot of umami from that. I like uni, however I found that even though the ratio of uni to beef was small, the flavour of the uni overpowered that of the meat. Perhaps is this dish 'sans uni' would be the way to enjoy the beef. 

The restaurant itself was nice to have a quiet, private dinner as all the tables are in separated rooms. You don't even have to call a waitress since ordering can be done on a touch pad. It seems they try to be a little more on the high-end, so you can imagine that it can get pricey. That being said, they do have a good deal on an all-you-can-eat niku zushi course meal. Overall a good place to start if you're new to beef sashimi or beef sushi, but if you want the real thing, you may have to look elsewhere.

Area: a 5-minute walk from Nagoya Station exit 1 名古屋駅出口１, or a 7-minute walk from Kamejima Station 亀島駅

Restaurant: Origami オリガミ

Map: www.hotpepper.jp/strJ000650458/

Hours: Mon-Thurs 5-12pm (LO 11pm), Fri and Sat 5pm-1am (LO 12am), Sun and Holidays 5-11pm (LO 10pm)