SO you've finally made the financial plunge and treated yourself to a fine piece of wagyu beef with a very respectable marble score of 8/9 at about $25 per 100gm at your favourite butcher. You bring it to your dinner table, brimming with pride and anticipation of heartfelt awe from your guests. At least until they give the steak a cursory look and go back to their happy chit-chatting as if you'd just served them a regular rib-eye.

Such is the ever-changing palate of local gourmets that wagyu - once the king of meats so revered and served only in top restaurants - is now seen as passe. Especially when even neighbourhood steak joints now have wagyu on their menus at bargain basement prices.

Chefs and home cooks alike are now looking at new cuts of meat and suffice to say that there are a lot more interesting ones on their menus.

Kurobuta pork is still a hot favourite on menus as chefs eschew Australian pork for the more marbled flavour and texture of the Japanese black pig. However, in line with the organic movement, organic pork is also gaining in popularity despite its high price tag.

The main importer of organic pork would have to be Supernature, which brings in regular supplies of chilled Eco-Pork from New Zealand to sell at its Park House premises.

'We've been getting very good feedback about it,' says Chen Pennefather, Supernature's general manager. The store had been selling eco-pork mainly to its regular customers,priced at $69 a kg. But now restaurants like Saint Pierre have already put it on their menus, and other top-end restaurants like Gordon Grill, Garibaldi and Gunther's are considering it as well, says Ms Pennefather. 'We only started marketing it to restaurants last week,'she adds, but the response has been promising.

Eco-pork comes from pigs which are fed an omega-based diet,says Ms Pennefather. 'They're also stress free from the time they are reared till they go to the slaughterhouse.' The most popular cut is the pork belly, followed by prime spare ribs ('to make bak kut teh') and pork chops, although a full range of cuts is available. There are also plans to bring in organic Welsh lamb but they have been put on hold as the AVA has suspended meat imports from the UK because of foot and mouth disease.

At Saint Pierre, chef Emmanuel Stroobant says that the trend now is to look at more interesting cuts of beef. 'Every other restaurant, including mine, has been serving wagyu tenderloin. But each cow only has two tenderloins so what do you do with the 99.9 per cent of meat left over after cutting the tenderloin?

'So now, we are looking at 'second cuts' (as opposed to prime cuts like tenderloin, sirloin and rib-eye). A cut such as 'onglet' or 'bavette' are pretty interesting in terms of flavour and texture as long as you don't take your meat well done. But if you still can't see blood in your plate, the new techniques of low temperature cooking will be perfect for you. We use cuts like the cheek, neck, chin and belly (main picture) - this method is rather new and requires some special equipment in order to be done the proper way.

'The meat is seared to give flavour, then seasoned with whatever the chef comes up with, vacuum-packed and plonked in a bath of water for as long as 36 hours. The critical point is the constant temperature and the cooling system to avoid bacterial development after cooking. The 36 hours of cooking is done in a range of 63 to 65 degrees. The cooling needs a blast chiller in order to drop the temperature as fast as possible.'

Lastly, says Stroobant, one cut of meat that never goes out of style is the classic char-grilled cote de beouf. 'A 1.2 kg beef rib for two persons remains a bestseller.'

Meanwhile, if the price (and typical frozen nature)of organic chicken is out of your reach, and so-called kampong chicken is a little too lean to make a decent Hainanese chicken rice dish, a supposedly healthy antibiotic-free chicken is now available at NTUC Fairprice supermarkets which is starting to gain favour.

Called Kami Sakura chicken, it's farmed in Malaysia according to Japanese farming techniques in which no antibiotics are used. The chickens are not given hormones and are supposed to be free range as well. One restaurant that's a big fan of Kami Sakura is Friends at Jelita (right). Co-owner Thomas Chiam says that the chicken's plump, tender and silky texture pairs well with luxury ingredients like truffles or morels. The meat also has less fat and has a cleaner smell than regular chicken, according to a Fairprice spokesman who adds: 'Fairprice brought in the chicken exclusively in mid-May.'

At Friends, the Sakura chicken is roasted and stuffed with ricotta cheese, mushroom and truffle juice. Besides chicken, Chiam adds: 'We have boutique suppliers who constantly bring in unique cuts of meat. This week, we were introduced to the Yorkshire Pork Jaw from Australia - it is a unique cut of meat, and this particular breed of the pig gives meat of a good texture - nicely chewy - and a delicate sweetness without the usual 'gamey' taste of pork. We are serving this as a special item at both outlets for the week.

At the Tung Lok group, senior executive chef Thomas Chai says that Sakura chicken is used in Mama Leong's chicken rice (left)at Space@Humble House. 'The meat is firmer and the taste is more intense. It costs more than a normal chicken, but we haven't raised the price ($9.90) of the dish.'

Customer demand for healthier meats has also led to the addition of organic beef and lamb on Tung Lok's menus. At My Humble House, Chia offers grilled organic beef with green apple sauce, and pan-seared organic lamb with dried shiso leaf in olive oil and wolfberry sauce.

With such amazing variety available now, it's no wonder that being a vegetarian is becoming a harder task, global warming or no global warming. But as far as meat lovers are concerned, there's more to a good piece of meat than wagyu, and the route of discovery is surely a tasty one.

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