The Night of the $35 Beef

For the last month or so, I have gone out every Thursday night with my friend Anthony, whom we call "Godfather" because if you squint one eye he sort of looks like Luke Wilson, who was "Godfather" in Old School. First, we go grab some dinner, usually carniverous in nature, then we head to a little restaurant called Annie Hall, where a group of people gather on Thursday nights to hang out and speak English.

The first time we went on one of our outings, we headed first to a restaurant called "Prince Matsuba." I don't know why it's called that. It's quite fantastical-looking, with huge turrets and spires and stained glass. The inside looks like the set of a King Arthur movie. I have a feeling that the inspiration might have come from watching something like that. Anyway, Godfather has been in Japan since 2004, but he's not too skilled at or interested in learning new languages specifically, Japanese) and so his communicational skills are, well, improvisational to say the best. We sat down and he asked the waitress "Menu? English?" Hmmm, no, don't have those. So he just said the word "STEAK" and luckily all the steak-related words are basically English in disguise, since it's a foreign and not Japanese food. So we were going to get "Siruloin" medium-rare. Not bad.

The steak came, and my, it was fan-tastic. Probably the first real meat I've had in Japan. It was big, rare, and delicious. The fun came to an end, though, when we were eating and enjoying it and suddenly got to thinking...I wonder how much this costs? I mean, simple logic says that if noodles and a few shrimp cost $13, then a big piece of premium steak can't be cheap. We found a price list sitting on the side of the table, where the bottom value was $25 and the top was $35. Dang it!

Sure enough, when we went to pay, $38 a person it was. Damn the Godfather! Just another case of unexpectedly treating yourself to a fine and expensive meal. At least in this case, unlike the eel, the steak was truly fantastic. But my anger at the Godfather simmered until it was at least medium-rare.