Marie Mutsuki Mockett

I was fortunate enough to have dinner at the beautiful and delicious (if slightly expensive) restaurant March in New York the other day. Like a lot of upscale restaurants, March includes many items that are "fusion" in nature. Here is one such item.



I realize that this is a sort of obscure item over which to obsess, but I thought that you Japundits out there might find it amusing. I'm pretty sure that the menu writer actually meant to spell the word "Zubaton" as "Zabuton." Here is a real life zabuton.



As you probably know, a zabuton is a pillow on which to sit on a tatami floor. It may or may not come with a back rest and arm rest. I think that the basic shape is very much like an enormous ravioli, and I suspect this is what the chef had in mind when he came up with the "pillow of marinated beef" for his menu.

Sadly, I didn't get to eat this "zubaton" as the kitchen was out of Kobe beef . . . which brings us to another interesting question. How can one eat Kobe beef in America? Well, the one time I've had it here, I was told that I was actually eating beef from a cow that had been raised in Texas. However, this particular cow was a genetic copy of a cow from Kobe. So, technically the waiter said, Kobe beef does exist in America.

What do all you Japundits think?

First poted at Japundit.