WAGYU Beef
Locally grown Wagyu beef at wickedly AFFORDABLE prices??? Was I hallucinating? I did a double take at the Salcedo Market yesterday when I spied a sign for WAGYU BEEF and on closer inspection it was clear that they had several cuts from the carcass…from brisket to tenderloin to the fore and hind shins (osso buco). The saleslady explained that the cattle were grown in Mindanao and they were freezing the meat and sending it up North. It was not clear if the beef was at all aged but from what I could see, it did look significantly different from most local beef so my curiosity was definitely peaked. I picked out a packet of osso buco cut and paid an astonishingly LOW PHP350 (USD7) or so and realized there was very little downside to this experiment. But first, what’s the big deal??? KOBE BEEF, possibly the most expensive BEEF on the planet is from the Wagyu breed of cattle…but not all Wagyu is KOBE beef…
Over 150 years ago, the Japanese began cross-breeding Asian cattle with imported British and European cattle, with the intention of constantly improving the “marbling” of fat in the meat. The increased marbling results in a very tasty, delicious and softer meat. 
This process began in and around Kobe prefecture. Visit this site for more information. Since then, the cows and their beef, generically referred to WAGYU cattle (“WAG” for Japanese and “YU” for cattle) have improved over the years and today they are considered to be amongst the highest quality meats in the world. The whole story of their being massaged and fed beer is apocryphal in most cases, there just isn’t enough land to roam on so the cattle are raised in tight pens and they don’t get to walk around too much. But mystique and hype and marketing means that KOBE BEEF is extremely sought after by some folks and at USD100-150 a pound, it is wickedly expensive. So as economics would ensure…the Japanese have quietly shipped lots of these jet black and sometimes red cattle to the U.S. and Australia where thousands and thousands of heads are now raised and slaughtered and shipped back to Japan to be marketed as WAGYU which they essentially are, only raised on foreign shores.
My experience with Kobe beef is less than some but more than most folks. I had it over 20 years ago in Japan while on a short visit and I can say the experience was memorable. Ordering it in most restaurants is prohibitively expensive but I have on several occasions been lucky enough to have it. I think it is delicious, but I often fret that it isn’t worth that astronomical prices charged. My best birthday present EVER was delivered in a non-descript little bayong with a ribbon on my 40th birthday… inside was a 5 kilo hunk of Kobe Beef flown in from Japan just hours before… trust me, I was hopping around the living room with excitement! It was the best hunk of beef I have ever cooked in our home, bar none. But it isn’t just the fact that it is from a WAGYU cattle. It matters how the cow was prepared and slaughtered, how its meat was stored, aged (the older the redder the meat and less moisture when you cook), and finally, how it is cooked. Recently, I had heard that several folks were trying to raise these WAGYU cattle on farms in Mindanao. I even heard that the first cuts of beef were already being enjoyed in Manila as of last year…in one case, as a nilaga which had about a 1/2 inch of fat floating on the surface of the soup! So it wasn’t a total surprise that someone had finally brought them to market…
On the drive home from the market, I wondered if I had done a dumb thing, buying the osso buco cut. Typically WAGYU is best eaten with a minimum of cooking and overcooking results 
in a very plain and boring meat. So the thought of slow cooking the osso buco in a classic Milanese preparation started to nag at me…but again, at the price paid, even a disaster wouldn’t be a disaster, if you get my drift…I defrosted the meat and prepped it by tying a string around the pieces. I noticed it was a bit watery and bits from the bone kind of made it look messy. I suspect the manner in which it was cut, aged and frozen was less than best practice. But again, the proof would be in the finished product, up next. If you would like to get some of this locally raised Wagyu, contact VIGER TRADING at 816-10-34 or 0922-846-7112, or check out their table at Salcedo Market on Saturdays. The most expensive cut is Tenderloin at PHP2,000 a kilo and the cheapest is the Osso Buco cut or shin at PHP275 a kilo. Oh, just the bonemarrow, great for baking with some salt and raising your cholesterol count by 50, is just PHP120 a kilo. And no, I have absolutely no relation to, or interest in, this company…I don’t even know who the owners are!
Hi MM—that osso buco looks delectable. Lucky you for finding that Wagyu beef!
After my daughter read the book, My Year of Meats, and living not too far from the feedlots with all those pitiful cows on steroids and hormones living in their own muck, I’ve taken to buying only organic beef from Niman Ranch, and infrequently at that. I miss the clan’s Sunday dinner tradition, nilagang baka with pechay, cauliflower, potatoes and occasionally, corn on the cob.
According to chef Martin Yan in his Asia cookbook (about the only one I’ve seen by a foreigner that describes our country, cuisine and culture with a good measure of respect, appreciation and enthusiasm rather than the usual arrogance and dismissiveness or cluelessness), it is the even pricier Matsuzaka beef cattle that gets those daily massages. They not only wash down their yummy feed with beer, their handlers exercise them one at a time and spray them with sake! Yan says Matsuzaka beef costs $150 a lb. and up. He even has a photo trying his hand (or mouth) at spewing sake on a Matsuzaka cow but says he wasn’t very good at it—kept swallowing the sake. :-)
June 12th, 2006I can make a killer beef rendang by using shin beef.It’s actually my favourite cut of beef and I find it makes the best curries,stews,nilaga and is wicked in meat pies. It’s so versatile but, don’t tell everybody as the cow has only four legs,hahaha!
June 12th, 2006check out the meat section of gaisano supermarket in market market. one of the stalls there sells beef from “pineapple-fed” cows from mindanao also. i tried the rib eye & porterhouse cuts and they did taste differently from the other local beef (i.e. batangas, etc), plus they are more tender. i learned that del monte raises these pineapple fed cows. makes sense.
June 12th, 2006Hi! My family first discovered Wagyu Beef in Salcedo Weekend Market. Now, that’s the only place where we buy choice cuts for special occasions.
June 13th, 2006waaaahhhh!!!! i need and want to go to Salcedo Market!!!!
June 13th, 2006Hi! Would you have the contact details of the Wagyu beef supplier?
June 13th, 2006Oops, sorry just found it going through your article again.
June 13th, 2006wow… marrow!
June 14th, 2006hi my name is adam, i raise wagyu beef here in south dakota of the usa… it is a VERY great animal to raise. and i am looking to expand. if any questions shoot me an email keepmeposted2k1@yahoo.com
June 16th, 2006MM, in case you never heard about this tip on cooking the osso bucco pcs… putting corse salt on both side of the cut osso bucco, prevents the “utak” as we call from coming out.
June 19th, 2006I still miss the taste and smell of the beef from Pinas…
Hi:
I’m an American now living in Mindanao in the Philippines. I enjoyed Waygu beef when living in the states, but can’t find a supplier here. Am surprised to learn that it is being raised in Mindanao. Can anyone tell me what area of Mindanao?
June 21st, 2006TX
Paul, I’m not sure where in Mindanao they are raising the wagyu but I know at least 2-3 folks are doing it. I would have guessed Cagayan but I am not certain. If you call the supplier listed in the post up top, he will probably tell you where. The other folks who raised at private haciendas and the owners are raising them pretty much as an experiment thus far…
June 22nd, 2006Adam of South Dakota USA,
May I ask why it is that every American needs to suffix the name of their city and state with “USA”? Is it to impress the rest of the world that they know at least three letters of the alphabet?
As a non-American, I am occasionally bemused by your compatriots’ penchant for belting out their residence down to it’s state, country, latitudes, and even soil content. For instance, “Hi y’all, I’m Joe Billy-Bob Bubba Huntington IV from Bumfcuk, South Carolina, You-Ass-Aye!”
I cannot think of another nation that has either a province or a state named South Dakota unless the Argentines have chosen it on the basis of syllabic-count having tired of calling their southern regions Patagonia. Then too, we must thank god/Ra/allah/Quetzalcoatl/Hendrix for your geographic thoroughness, as we’re never again about to mistake your state for a viloyati in Uzbekistan.
Pedro Antonio
January 30th, 2007Quezon City, Metro Manila, Luzon Island, Philippines, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe.
hello. what time does the salcedo market open? thanks
March 18th, 2008