I once took a friend from Hawaii to a Beef Tongue restaurant in Sendai city. That was a very famous and long history restaurant in Sendai, it’s not a strange thing if a foreigner is surprised at the good taste and soon love it.

As I expected, he soon started to admire the delicious meat and soup.  We ate them in 10 minutes or so, and we drove back to Tokyo. 

On the way to Tokyo, he asked me what kind of meat he had there.  ” Beef Tongue !” I answered……His face turned frozen.  He got really amazed that he ate tongue.

Like this story, in western countries people don’t eat the tongue place of beef. Sendai city has more than 100 years of the tongue dish.  To be honest, some Japanese can’t eat like my Hawaiian friend. But if you are brave and curious about food culture, it’s a good cultural experience and you will maybe love it.  

Cooking is just simple.  They grill it with charcoal and put a little salt and pepper on it. Soup is also very good.  Soup stuff is leek and beef tail only.

I know it’s a strange food for most of foreigners, but it’s also a popular food in Japan. If you go to Sendai city, never miss it.  Local people usually recommend Beef tongue if we ask what the locally representing food is.  Also there are many beef tongue restaurants in Tokyo or big cities in Japan recently. There you can taste it too although Sendai city is the most famous Beef tongue city in Japan.