Even if I ate steak, this is obscene

[janedavitt]

We were in the supermarket yesterday and David was browsing the meat section. Remember how we got a pork leg for $7 and butchered it down into chops, sausages, kebab bits etc?

No chance of us buying from this section.

8 star wagyu beef striploin steaks at $132.26 a kilo.

One steak was $53.57, another over sixty, marbled with fat.

Just obscene prices for a small piece of meat for one person.

Comments

[elmyraemilie]

::boggles::

[janedavitt]

I;m wondering how many they'll sell. First time we've seen it there.

[catspaw]

Looks repellent - price makes it even moreso!

[janedavitt]

Yeppers.

[mab_browne]

So just how many rich carnivores *do* live in your portion of Canada then? Also, as someone accustomed to grass-fed NZ beef, that looks a bit sickly actually. But I bet it would melt in your mouth, and disappear almost as quickly as your cash.

[janedavitt]

I would be amazed if they sold them, tbh.

[twistedchick]

It's not just any beef. Which does not, of course, excuse the price.

[janedavitt]

Interesting! But no, it doesn't. Pure hype and silliness.

[rydra_wong]

I'm not sure how it's different from very expensive wine (obscene prices for one small glass of alcohol for one person, etc.).

I mean, I wouldn't buy either, personally. But I've spent equivalent money on experiences that do happen to be valuable to me (e.g. theatre tickets).

If someone is a serious gourmet and want to make a very special meal to celebrate a big occasion, I can (sort of, if I squint mentally) start to see how something like this would make sense.

And top-quality wagyu beef would be the meat equivalent of a $120 bottle of wine. The marbling and distribution of fat through the meat is part of the USP.

[janedavitt]

I have no trouble with people treating themselves but it's what, fifteen or twenty mouthfuls for the same amount of money that a student would spend on a week's worth of food (going off my daughter's shopping when she's at college). I'm too working class in origin to feel comfortable with waste; I see a top in a fashion magazine for $10,000 and I think, but it's cotton! What the hell? How can a one inch square designer label sewn into it make it worth that?

Plus, a bit of Googling showed me a UK supermarket was selling it for about seven pounds a steak in a recent promotion...It's worth what they can get people to pay.

[rydra_wong]

Plus, a bit of Googling showed me a UK supermarket was selling it for about seven pounds a steak in a recent promotion

Ha! That, I might buy. *g*

[janedavitt]

It was Aldi, though that's a new one to me. Oddly, they also sell Wagyu burgers at Zehrs and I did urge David to try those a few weeks back; they were ten bucks for four which seemed a reasonable indulgence but he decided not to. I wonder what bits of the cow are in there? ;-)

edited because I CANNOT spell wagyu correctly, lol.

[raine]

I'd be curious to know if it's Japanese wagyu or if it's Canadian (given that wagyu is produced in the US, Canada, and Australia, in addition to the original source of Japan.) If it's locally produced (in your case, Canada), then yeah, someone's banking on the name alone to sell it. Beef like that, though, should never be cooked more than medium rare, and as others have said, it's an indulgence. Me, I'd be afraid to screw up and would rather go to a fine steakhouse for the experience - and a chef who knew what they were doing.

[janedavitt]

It was eight star whatever that means but there's a VERY limited supply of the real deal so I'd wonder about that myself.

[bluewolf458]

My friend Valerie has an Aldi near her, and saw the promotion for the waygu, thought it sounded good. But on the picture it looked very lean!

Anyway, I took her along to the store about 9.30 on the morning the promotion opened and they were already sold out...

[janedavitt]

At that price, not surprising!

[bluewolf458]

Apparently her nephew had been in earlier than we were, and it was sold out then, too. Interestingly, they've never had it in again. I'd guess they hadn't had much.

[starwatcher]

.
Y'know... I don't even like that much fat on my bacon -- and most of that is fried away while cooking. (I like my bacon crispy enough to stand up by itself.) I wouldn't pay $1 a pound for meat like that, much less $60. The mind boggles. And someone said it should only be cooked to medium rare... Ugh! *gags at the thought* If that were my only choice for meat, I would become a vegetarian.
.

[janedavitt]

Me too :-)