Hida Takayama - Gyuuman

More Hida Takayama.

Hida Takayama in Gifu prefecture is also famous for their beef.
(I know, I know… Here we go again, places being famous for their food… Bear with me here. Apologies to Mr. Wake.)

Takayama beef is so famous that you can try it in a variety of ways. Beef on a stick with “gyuukushi” (牛串）, you can have it in Yakiniku style at a restaurant, you can even have it completely raw as sashimi, and they also have GYUUMAN, a rip-off… errr… I mean a food surprisingly similar to butaman or nikuman. Yet, somehow unique in its own way…

This shop in the center of town on Takayama’s main street specializes in gyuuman.

Remember the post about sarubobo in Hida Takayama a while back? The sarubobo are stamped onto the Gyuuman. Here you can use the Japanese phrase I mentioned last time… “Uzai.”

Despite the fact that the sarubobo is stamped on the gyuuman, and that the food is hardly original… They taste mighty fine!

As a side note, I asked a 551 vendor why in Kanto (Tokyo area) the food is often referred to as “nikuman”, but in Kansai it is usually referred to as “butaman”. It seems that in Kansai, NIKU (肉), which literally means “meat”, is assumed to mean “beef”. While in Kanto, NIKU just means generic meat, so it can be used for pork or beef or whatever. Naruhodo.
The difference between nikuman/butaman and gyuuman, is that gyuuman is filled with beef. While nikuman/butaman has pork inside.

I forgot to mention one other way to enjoy beef in Takayama.

These are not Takoyaki. These are Gyuutama (牛玉） (beef balls).

And there you have it.

- Harvey