Beef - different parts in English, Japanese and Chinese

After having the Chinese hotpot dinner last week in Him Kee Hot Pot 謙記 and getting stumped on what all the different choices you get in selecting beef, the number one ingredient of Chinese hotpot; dad decided  to do a bit of research on the subject.

It all started with 牛頸脊, which broadly translates to chuck and neck. And the confusion starts straightaway. Basically, where exactly these cuts are depends on who you talk to and where you are, that is even if you speak only English, because the primal cuts, the basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut, vary from the US to the UK and they are different again in Australia. ref wikipedia entry on beef

On the whole when you order 牛頸脊 (or 手切肥牛) in a hotpot restaurant in Hong Kong, you will get a plate of thinly-sliced-across-grain chuck, unless you go to one of the shops where you get them in further subdivided cuts of three (ref weekend hongkong)
牛頸 - neck
牛邊 - blade (word of warning, 牛鞭 which is pronounced the same way and a much better known term is cow's penis)
牛翼 - chuck

In Him Kee, the second beef dish on offer is 牛肋肉, equally pricey as 牛頸脊. This one is much less confusing, it's just rib loin.

So which one is better for hotpot? It really depends on how long you want to leave it in the broth. As a general rule, the further you move away from the horn towards the mid section of the cow, the more tender the texture gets and the shorter the cooking time. So the rib loin is more tender and require less cooking time than chuck, hence the rib loin should be cooked shabu-shabu style (fast), whereas the chuck slices should be cooked sukiyaki style (slower).

What should you order if you are with a big group of people who couldn't care less about how long they leave the beef to cook? Then you should order beef brisket, 牛腩. Basically, brisket comes from the same shoulder part of the forequarter of a slaughtered cow as chuck, chuck being the "top" cut and brisket being the "bottom" cut. Referring to the Chinese wiki entry, the three main edible subdivisions of the beef brisket are:
坑腩 - the "bottom" cut of the first 8 ribs of the cow, tough and full flavor since it supports a large part of the cow's weight.
爽腩 - the "bottom" cut of the 9th to 12th ribs of the cow, softer in texture with plenty of collagen, smaller in quantity makes this the pricier cut of the brisket. Arguably the most famous beef brisket restaurant in Hong Kong, Kau Kee 九記, is famous for offering 爽腩 in a rich broth.
腩角 - the tiny portion between 8th and 9th, only seen those sold in local butchers, surrounded by collagen.

The equivalent English distinction between such cuts are the point-cut {腩角 where the point is 角 and 爽腩} which is the superficial pectoral muscle of the shoulder responsible for pulling and leaner, flat-cut {坑腩} which is the deep pectoral muscle of the shoulder responsible for pushing. ref wikipedia entry on brisket The flat cut brisket is traditionally more widely available in the western butchers mainly for cooking corned beef (known in the UK as salt beef) and pastrami. The point-cut was often discarded. But this might no longer be true as Chinese cuisine becomes more prevalent. The equivalent phenomenon is chicken feet, where the sale of chicken feet is the margin which is keeping the US chicken industry afloat. ref freakonomics.com

The following picture is from a Japanese website but somehow we have lost its origin. Please let us know if you know where it's from.

1. 肩ロース肉　- chuck roll, blade {牛邊}

すじっぽい（筋っぽい）sinewy therefore cut thin to use.

Best for yakiniku, sukiyaki, stir-fry

Steak = flat iron steak

2. 肩肉　– shoulder / chuck tender / clod {牛翼, 黃瓜條， taiwan 腱胛里肌}

the part that exercise a lot, so it is tougher but full flavor

Best for curry, stew or thin cut for yakiniku

Steak = teres major steak

3.  すね肉 – shank / shin {腱子}

sinewy but full flavor

Best for pot au feu, traditional French beef stew

4. リブロース肉 – spencer roll / rib loin {牛肋肉, taiwan 里肌}

tender, the uppermost part of the cow

Best for roast beef, shabu shabu

Steak = rib eye steak, entrecôte
カルビ - Galbi, Korean bbq short ribs

5. サーロイン　– Sirloin　{西冷牛排，牛外脊, taiwan 沙郎牛排}

Good texture + marbling

Best for steak, sukiyaki

Steak = Sirloin, New York Strip

6.ランプ肉 – Rump {外條}

Not fatty, fine texture

Best for steak, roast

Steak = round steak, rump steak

7. 外もも - Silverside, bottom round

Exercise makes it sinewy and a bit tough

Cut into cubes for stewing, thin cut for anything

8. 内もも - Topside, top round

Tender with great taste

Best for sukiyaki, tataki

9. ヒレ肉 – Fillet / Tenderloin {taiwan 小里肌}

Next to the back bone with no exercise, tender but not fatty. The Best!!

Best for steak and tataki

Steak = T-bone steak (front part less tenderloin), porterhouse (rear part more tenderloin) [Bistecca alla Fiorentina]

10. バラ肉 – Flank {巴掌肉}

Layer of fat separated by layer of red meat. Tough

Best for curry, stew. Thin cut Korean bbq
Steak = Hanger steak, skirt steak (the meat of the diaphragm)
ハラミ

11. シンタマ肉 – Thick flank

Non fatty

Best for steak, sukiyaki

Also

ネック – neck {牛頸}

red meat with elongated strip of fat

肩バラ – brisket {牛腩}


ホルモン - offal, it's always good to know what you order and what you about to eat. This Japanese word, pronounced as ho-ru-mo-n, sounds exactly like hormone (in fact the Japanese for hormone is exactly the same). So it's easy, if someone is offering you hormone to eat, your reaction might be similar to being offered offal. In Gyukaku 牛角,  the Japanese BBQ chain, there's a menu item called, ホルモン三種盛り which is simply translated as assorted 3 kinds. If you think assorted 3 kinds are just 3 different types of meat without checking the picture, you might be in for a shocker. The 3 kinds are:
コロホル - pork intestines
レバ - beef liver
センマイ - beef tripe

If you like this entry, you might also like the most popular entry on our blog, all about beef offal.
As we gather more information, we shall do more updates on this entry. Let us know if you see anything incorrect.

謙記火鍋 Him Kee Hot Pot

配料架 Condiments tray

油麵筋 is a much more precise and correct term for the yellow puff balls but not a lot of the hot pot places in Hong Kong will know what you are trying to order if you ask for that instead of 生根.

牛頸脊 - different cuts of meat is a huge subject and often a reflection of differences in cultures. Take a look at the wikipedia entry for beef if you are in doubt. There were 13 different menu selections for beef slices in Him Kee. The most expensive being 牛頸脊 which can be translated as beef chuck eye.


Update - Please check out the latest entry on beef in our blog for more details.



牛頸脊 beef chuck eye，生根 (油麵筋) fried gluten balls，手打牛丸 hand made beef balls

All about beef offal 牛雜，牛胃，牛肚，牛栢葉， 金錢肚

“牛栢葉和牛肚是不是一樣？” came up during a recent dinner conversation while having Chinese hotpot in the American club. We are not sure if our ancestors really differentiate much among the carcasses of little dead animals. Just can't imagine them saying, "Yucks! That's offal, we only eat the meaty part of the body."

After some digging, looking up high-school biology and checking Cantonese culinary terms, we think we have cracked this question. It is probably worth setting out all the related terms here as well.
牛雜－a popular street food in south east Asia which involves stewing beef offal in a rich sauce made from Chu Hou Paste 柱候醬. The offal found is limited to what's inside the abdomen like intestines, lungs, spleens, kidneys, livers and stomachs, but no brains or hearts.
金錢肚－Within a pot of 牛雜, this is perhaps the most recognizable due to its honeycomb appearance and perhaps the most popular. It is more appropriately named in English as the honeycomb tripe and comes from the second stomach, the reticulum, of a cow.
牛栢葉（牛百頁）－An ingredient sometimes found in 牛雜 but more often missing because it is a dish in its own right. This perennial favorite dim sum dish is from the third stomach, the omasum (aka manyplies),  of a cow. The dim sum version is bleached white using hydrogen peroxide (an industrial chemical that's also used in the bleaching of dark fish meat in fish fingers to make them commercially more desirable.) The hotpot version is normally unbleached and appeared blackish. It is known as leaf tripe in English, referring to the leafy texture of this particular stomach.
牛肚－This is from the first stomach, the rumen, of a cow. It is known as smooth tripe in English and perhaps the least desirable of the three types of tripe. As found in the quote from The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion (Deluxe Edition)

The tripe found in most markets today is the lining of beef stomach, though that from pork and sheep also fall under the definition. There are two beef stomach chambers and three kinds of tripe, all of which are tough and require long cooking. The best tripe, from the second stomach chamber, is called honeycomb tripe because the inner side has a pattern similiar to a honeycomb. It's the most tender and subtly flavored. Pocket tripe is cut from the end of the second stomach chamber. It's shaped like a pocket with the inside also being honeycombed. The least desirable plain or smooth tripe (with a smooth texture on both sides) comes from the first stomach. Tripe is available fresh (which is actually partially cooked by the packer) in most supermarkets. Choose tripe with a pale off-white color and store for up to a day in the refrigerator. Tripe is also available pickled and canned. The most famous French dish using this variety meat is the Norman dish called tripes à la mode de Caen-tripe braised with carrots, onions and cider. In Spanish-speaking countries, menudo (tripe soup) is a well-known favorite.

牛胃－The all inclusive term covering all the above, plus the reed tripe from the fourth stomach, the abomasum, of a cow.

Update - if you like this entry, please check out our latest write up on beef from our blog, thank you.

So now you have the answer to the above question and more. We are all for knowing what you eat.
Related wikipedia links:
offal, tripe
Other links:
hydrogen peroxide bleaching of dark fish meat

Steaks, heavenly steaks

You might ask why we should care about what food mum and dad eat or which restaurants they go to. Most of the time you would be right but following the same logic we should never stand around the dining table waiting for little morsels to drop on the floor. Moreover, once in a while, the doggy bag they brought home would contain leftovers for us and us only. Thanks to the urge of their carnivores' inner self, we have had 2 different pieces of beef bones from 2 different places recently.

The first piece was a T shaped bone from Bistecca, who claimed to be Hong Kong's first authentic Italian steak house. Mum went there with a friend and her verdict was the beef was well cooked but the service has left a lot to be desired. They ordered a Bistecca alla Fiorentina to share and was asked how well they would like it cooked. Mum asked for her usual "doneness", medium well and was taken aback when it was brought to the table. Instead of the pale pinkish interior that she expected to see upon first carving, she saw bright red bloody meat in the middle. The piece got taken back in for a second round of grilling and came back out with the desired "doneness". Being the armchair steak connoisseurs that we are, we can see at least 2 problems with this order.

1. Bistecca alla Fiorentina should be cooked from the Chianina breed of cattle, instead of the Wagyu breed they advertised. You probably wouldn't advertise yourself as authentic Italian when you look like a Japanese regardless and raised in Australia, even if you speak fluent native Italian.
2. Bistecca alla Fiorentina are served invariably very rare. The waiter / waitress should either explain and not asked for the "doneness" of the meat. Or if they asked for the "doneness" of the steak, it should come out with the expected consistency. Obviously neither were done.

Perhaps the authenticity of the place only refers to the decoration.

The second bone was from the prime rib roasted in the Hong Kong Country Club wine cellar restaurant. Mum and dad have been raving about the prime rib there since Christmas when they first visited the place. We literally only got our teeth into one a few days ago. And it was good!! Even the left-over meat stuck to the bones were deliciously juicy. Guess for most people the only problem is getting access to this exclusive club.

No photos unfortunately. Perhaps next time when mum and dad are not so hungry. With the new fad being dry aged steak in Hong Kong and new places seem to be springing up monthly with their own dry cabinet for beef, it wouldn't be long before we dig our teeth into another piece of bone or left-over steak.

Not for the faint-hearted. If you think duck's tongues as gross, you might not want to know the full details and history of the aging of beef. Quote from Harold McGee - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen:

Like cheese and wine, meat benefits from a certain period of aging, or slow chemical change, during which it gets progressively more flavorful. Meat also becomes more tender. In the 19th century, beef and mutto joints would be kept at room temperature for days or weeks, until the outside was literally rotten. The French called this mortification, and the great chef Antoin Carême said that it should proceed "as fa as possible."......

And there's a whole chapter in Heston Blumenthal - In Search of Perfection which explores the process of aging steak and how to use a slow cook method to speed up the process of aging.

Both books are great additions to your cookbook library if you aspire to become a food buff.