Broiled Beef (Yakiniku) Recipe

Combine sesame seeds, pepper, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and rice vinegar into a marinade.

Marinate meat for one hour.

Cook over charcoal, on a griddle or possibly under a broiler.

Dip veggies in marinade and grill.

Serve immediately.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Comments: Till the 1500s, meat (niku) was virtually unknown in the Japanese diet.

Indeed, it was regarded with something between scorn and contempt as a bizarre Western aberration.

But once it was introduced into the diet by Portuguese and Dutch explorers and missionaries, it slowly became a standard part of Japanese cuisine, beginning first in port towns, and spreading ultimately through the society.

These days, beef has become an object of great desire, raised with care, cultivated at great expense, served at extraordinary cost.

There are those who argue which Japanese beef is the best in the world.

And like the finest beef, it's cooked with much care, to maintain as much of its basic, primordial flavor as possible.