This was inspired by spending the whole day in up country Ulupalakua Ranch with Alex Franco and Jimmy Gomes. A lot of people have a hard time with the texture of grass-fed beef, especially when they have ingrained into their brains that meat should be able to be cut with a fork. Whatever moisture and fat that is not present in grass-fed beef, to me, is made up for in more flavor and taste. I would eat steak tartare from grass-fed beef over feed lot beef. Having a Japanese mom and going to Japan as often as I have, eating shabu shabu, chanko nabe, sukiyaki, and real thinly-sliced Japanese Wagyu, I have learned that there are more ways to eat steak than just cooking a large cut on the grill or on the pan. In fact, I appreciate wagyu meat that is highly marbled , much more in shabu shabu than in Western steak form. Maui and the Big Island are in a major drought, so their heads of cattle are not as high because there just isn’t enough grass to feed the herd. Production is low. I told Alex I would play around with some ideas and this was one of them. With their processing plant, they might be able to provide this to us, and if this dish gets tweaked a couple more times, it will be a good seller, very quick to put out, and the most importantly, it will show off the beef really well---you can taste it, and enjoy the texture.