Wafū Sutēki (和風ステーキ, Japanese-style steak)

Steak makes people formal. A good piece of beef sits on the board looking expensive, and suddenly the pan feels like an examination. Wafū sutēki is kinder than that: salt the beef, sear it cleanly, reduce soy, mirin, and sake in the same pan, then let grated daikon cut through the butter and richness.

One detail decides it: the surface of the steak must be dry before it meets the pan. Moisture steals the heat you need for browning, and browning is where the beef's sweetness and the soy's sharpness will later meet. Butter comes in after the first hard sear, because butter has aroma but less patience with high heat than iron does. A little oil carries the heat; the butter gives the dish its round edge.

We call this wafū, Japanese style, because it uses our seasoning grammar. Soy gives salt and depth, mirin gives gloss and mild sweetness, and sake loosens the browned bits from the pan while carrying away the raw edge of alcohol. Daikon oroshi, grated daikon, is not decoration. It is the quiet referee. In winter, when daikon is at its prime, it is sweet and clean enough to make rich beef taste lighter without pretending the beef is anything but beef.

Serve it sliced, not as a slab. Five or seven pieces, garlic chips on top, daikon mounded where the diner can draw it through the sauce. This is honmono made reachable: no theater, no heavy curtain of sauce, nothing hidden. Leave the plate room; the beef has already made its argument.