Sendai Postwar Original · Grilled Beef Tongue
Gyutan (Grilled Beef Tongue)
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It exists because of postwar meat shortages — a Sendai restaurant owner started grilling beef tongue and oxtail, cuts American occupation forces weren't using, and the city built a whole cuisine around them.
Thick slices of salted beef tongue are grilled over charcoal until charred at the edges and tender inside, served alongside a bowl of barley rice, oxtail soup and pickles.
Why it's made this way: Sendai restaurateur Keishiro Sano is credited with pioneering grilled gyutan around 1948 during a postwar meat shortage, and it grew into the city's defining specialty, with dedicated gyutan-only restaurant rows still packed today.
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