After a small delay - just over half a year - the biggest department stores / grocery stores in Korea will be putting US beef on sale. Without having to make a special search for it, you'll be able to find cheaper beef. Wow. This should NOT be a newsworthy / blog-worthy post, but for some reason it is. Recall the sentiments towards US beef from last summer (and yes, it wasn't all about US beef, I know), and the subsequent announcements that the biggest department stores wouldn't be stocking it until things blew over or calmed down. According to this Korea Herald article, it looks as though that time is soon at hand - "as little as a month away", or March for those of you keeping track.
Yes, US beef has been for sale in Korea for several months, but good luck finding it. Independent butchers or smaller stores were slightly more likely to carry it, but it wasn't likely to be in the first freezer you looked in. A place near where I live has been selling LA galbi, but there wasn't any significant price savings to make it worth buying.
So has the risk of eating US beef gone down? Doubtful. A few piecemeal changes somewhere on the back end of the inspection side of things might change things a few percentage points, but the general public doesn't see the whole story. I'll state my long-held position, which is to accurately label your choices and let the consumer decide.
In the meantime, I can't wait for a good steak.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
US beef in Korea? About time!
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2 comments:
Funny, the E-Mart across the street from me has had US beef for a couple of months now. Clearly labelled and a bit less expensive. However, I still don't see any nice, inch-thick sirloins or anything, it's all been butchered down to galbi chunks or shabu slivers. Dammit!
BTW, I saw those stages set up for the dance contest, but when I came back to Dongdaemun on Sunday evening, nothing was happening--I mis-timed it, I guess!
@Tuttle, I saw US beef at a Homeplus in Gangwon-do during Lunar New Year, so yes to a certain extent it's out there, and has been for awhile (that's where I got the picture from ). I've scoured my local E-mart but haven't yet had any luck... The inch-thick sirloins probably aren't in as much demand as the "galbi chunks or shabu slivers", but perhaps I'll get a butcher to make some thick slices in the near future... Thanks for reading :)
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