There can be little doubt that the grass of Limavady, Co Derry, has a special sweetness to it, and the carefree, short life there of a bullock has the stress-free perfection of a bovine health farm.
If farmer-extraordinaire Ian Mark had told us he had personally massaged every animal daily in the fashion of the beef producers of Japan's Kobe province, the most hard-bitten of cynical hacks, sated on the delights of Brussels gastronomy, would have believed him unquestioningly.
Northern Ireland beef is back on the world market and, to celebrate, Mr Mark's mouth-watering finest was served up to Dr Mo Mowlam and a gathering of 120 journalists, EU agricultural officials, importers and Brussels friends of the province. There was car- paccio, blood-red and sliced thinner than smoked salmon, boeuf en croute, grilled fillet, filet de boeuf a l'echalotte . . .
Even John Ross from the Scottish Quality Beef and Lamb Association had to admit he was impressed, galling as it must have been while Angus languishes still a BSE prisoner on British soil.
It would take time to win back the market for the 50 per cent of production Northern Ireland used to export, admitted David Rutledge, the chief executive of the Livestock and Meat Commission. But they were confident that by the autumn, despite the high pound and not being able to export meat on the bone, they would have made inroads back into the market with their "premium product".
The first consignment of a ton - half of it from Mr Mark's farm - was for the Brussels Good Meat Co. They even had a video to show customers the very animals they were eating.
A letter from the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, told us how he wanted to be with us and that this was only the start of putting all UK beef back on the market. Dr Mowlam told us it was probably the safest beef in the world.
And the beef tasted all the sweeter that we were eating for peace, or so Mo told us. Beef exporting, she said, "was an essential part of building the peace" through its contribution to economic regeneration.
That's all right then. No need to feel guilty about that second helping. Nothing to do with gluttony . . . we were eating, enthusiastically, for peace.
Except our colleague from the Express, a vegetarian.