Best Posts in Thread: Filipino grocery store beef ... or is it really carabao ?

Well, you can get [good] beef in VietNam ... and I don't see any big beef cattle ranches there either.

I guess even VietNam has long surpassed the Philippines in things like that.

 

Of course, you get what you pay for and the stores stock what they think people can afford. Filipino's are getting richer. They can afford better beef than they previously could. I have heard that carabao is used in cans of corn beef and other cheap "beef" products but Robinson's probably has actual beef.

The most popular breed of cattle here seems to be Brahman.

Brahman (cattle) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you do a Google image search you will see this is the breed you normally see when walking around off the road. The small farmers probably optimize for financial need rather than prime age / feed / weight for eating.

These days, if you have the coin, you have lots of options. Many more options than when I first got here.

Edit: Hat tip to @stevehigg - I didn't notice he already posted the breed.

 

The Island of Masbate is a cattle raising island. They even play and sing Country music there. Besides the aging process the other factor in the quality of beef here is the age and species of cows being used. Herefords and Angus will not survive here and the species that is raised here (Brahma ) grows very slowly and with less marbling. In the States a Herford would go to slaughter years before the ones raised here.

 

Agreed about Mexican food..best around I think is Tommys across from the park in Valencia and at Gie's Gies every Saturday there Tacos (Crunchy Pork with avacado) are good and so is the Enchiladas...Wow I have always had a good filet at Moon's Robinson's...and there ribs where not bad either (Mexican Style)

 

I just got done eating some great Chicken Curry that I made .... Cooked the chicken breast over charcoal before adding it to the curry sauce. Also added to it some potatoe and carrots that were chopped and pre-cooked.

Spicy and Great stuff !

 

Thanks!

 

There is a slaughterhouse out in the Palinpinion area. Cattle are trucked in from somewhere and killed and prepared. I know a local guy who is one of the head bangers. The guy whose job it is to tenderise the beef left years ago and was never replaced. lol

 

Have you ever noticed that you don't see beef cattle in this country. I understand that this is not Texas, but I am convinced that there are none, or very very few cattle ranches here.

So, where is this poor quality "beef" that we buy in Hypermart, Robinsons, etc coming from? ... Well, it's not imported (I asked the butcher). I am at the firm belief that this so-called "beef" they are selling is actually local Carabao!

I have noticed that when buying "beef" here, about the only stuff that is available is: various grades of ground beef or just pieces of meat that is cut up into either large or small chunks ..... I asked the guy if they had any Rib Eye or Porterhouse or T-Bone steaks for sale and he didn't even know what I was talking about.

Every "cow" has areas of the meat that would be used as the Rib-Eye or the Porterhouse or the T-Bone steak, but where does that meat go here in the PI? ... It's certainly not available in these local grocery stores here.

You can't even get a good steak at any of the resturants here, so, where do all the good cuts of meat go?

Again, I am convinced that this stuff we are buying here is nothing but Carabao .... It was the same problem when I lived in Bacolod City for 5 years.
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BTW .... When I lived in Bacolod City, they had a large SM Mall there that also included a very large grocery store. They had some beef that they advertised as "imported from Australia" .... Well, other than the high price, it was no better than the local beef they sold ... If it was indeed imported from Australia, Australia was getting rid of there very poorest quality beef and putting it on a boat to the Philippines!

RANT OVER .......