Lazily flipping through a free magazine, an article on Kobe beef caught my attention. Aside from the secrecy that shrounds the raising of these prized Japanese cows (a purported diet of beer and sake, daily massages to encourage maximum fat marbling) I was even more fascinated by this bit of info:The Japanese take this breeding so seriously that their beef arrives at restaurants with a copy of the cow's birth certificate, bearing the animal's nose-printI immediately wanted to see one of these certificates with the nose-print. It seems like a gesture of reverence as much as a validation of authenticity. Luckily, I found an example on mwoon's flickr stream.
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