Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm almost entirely vegetarian, but I say if you're going to eat meat, eat the best meat from well-treated animals. Wagyu beef animals are well fed and well cared for...they get beer and massages, which is better than most.

There is also Wagyu-style pork. Apparently the pigs don't like the massage, so they got a swimming pool for them instead, and they love it.

Wagyu and Kobe both require as little as you can possible handle...if you get steaks, get them thinly cut or butterflied, and cook them just until the outside is seared. Maybe a little salt and pepper, nothing else. Let them rest quite a while before serving. Good luck!

@ NotAmerican - You are talking out of your ass. Japanese Wagyu are treated awfully. They are raised like veal, but instead of stopping the torture at six months, it's stretched out for three and a half years. The reason they are massaged and fed beer is because their living conditions are so awful i.e. they are not allowed to move at all for their entire lives that they require massages to relieve their arthritis and beer in order to stimulate their bowel movements.

I suggest you check out this article: http://www.chow.com/media/4322

But it is still tasty...Enjoy the your steak DudeLovesFood

@ Squeeze - I work closely with the cattle industry (including the Waygu Beef Association and ranches) and I don't disagree with anything you said. I was not encouraging the eating of Kobe beef specifically, I was simply encouraging the eating of Wagyu and beef in general. Due to my affiliations with the industry I would definitely prefer and encourage individuals to purchase Waygu here in the US. Where they purchase and from whom, I will let them decide. Finally, I am not aware of any US ranchers who raise Waygu using Japanese methods...that kind of treatment to animals won't fly here in the US and ranchers know it. You will notice the OP said they are "feed" on a Japanese program which is a common marketing tactic so they can try and compete against the Kobe brand.

@ Squeeze - That is a great question, from what I understand, the Japanese feeding program that they follow with American raised Wagyu (oops...i just realized I have been flipping my "y" and "g", maybe you shouldn't listen to a guy who can't even spell Wagyu correctly) is more about what is fed to the cattle and the length of time they are fed, then massages and beer - which I am not sure really happens on a large scale anymore. Unlike most cattle, it is preferred that they are feed slowly over a long period of time with a more varied diet than traditional feed versus traditional fattening of cattle at a feedlot for a short period before slaughter. Some larger ranches will work with specialized feedlots, but some ranches will manage the feeding programs themselves (e.g. grass fed, etc) and not send the animals to a feedlot. Even though demand here in the US has continued to grow, a large portion of Wagyu continues to be shipped out of the country.

Here is an interesting article that kind of touches on everything we have discussed and talks about what some of the major US producers are doing. Wagyu Beef - Safe, Succulent and No Longer Rare