Best place to buy good meat in Pattaya

[Dario]

Can anyone tell me where I best go to buy quality meat to make steak or filet mignon in Pattaya?

[giddyup]

Big C Extra has a good selection of imported beef and lamb.

[luudee]

 

In Pattaya, you can get OK quality meats at AKA, and TKM foods.

 

Both have about the same selection of local and imported meets, at about the same price.

 

If you want something better, you can order from Paleo Robbie (but don't get their patties).

They ship from Bangkok, and have better selection imho.

 

Makro (south Pattaya) has a good selection of (NZ) Lamb.

 

luudee

https://www.facebook.com/AKA-traders-253642788512938/
https://www.facebook.com/tkmfoodsolutionthailand
https://www.facebook.com/PaleoRobbie/

Edited December 5, 2019 by luudee

[torturedsole]

Makro, Big C and, though more expensive, Tops for imported beef.  

[Marc K]

Well-aged beef at Arno's in Terminal 21. Take a look at their deli counter.

[baansgr]

Price dosn't necessarily mean quality...marinating and how cooked can make the cheapest cut just as good. Food mart on Thappraya I find is good enough.

[LennyW]

TKM

[Traubert]

Insomnia.

[bkk6060]

10 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Insomnia.

You been there all night and just get home?:)

[jastheace]

yeah, good luck. treat hindquarter thai beef as you would western forequarter cuts. ie grind down or stew/ casserole, long and slow. premium price for imported. other meat (chicken and pork) a bargain. I personally steer well away from 'local' seafood, for many reasons (concerns that have been in many threads and news articles). meat aplenty, good meat... less so. welcome to the local palate. a couple of bottles of samsong make every dish taste ok (ish).

[neeray]

Lot's of meat available in Pattaya. Aged, young, tenderloin, light, dark, great selection. From what I understand, most of it comes from Issan.

[Pilotman]

BIG C on Central, excellent selection, but it's not cheap. The beef is Australian.  

[DrTuner]

Makro, frozen section, MB4+ marbling score badge on the bag (can't remember the brand but easy enough to find), seems to be local Angus. I spotted it a month ago and yes, surprisingly it was good. Other than that I prefer Friendship over BigC extra. 

 

For steaks, age it.

[DrTuner]

2 hours ago, neeray said:

From what I understand, most of it comes from Issan.

There are farms like Chokchai in Pak Chong. Grasslands, I think that's where the majority comes from. Not sure what breeds, Chokchai itself is a dairy farm.

[Olmate]

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

Makro, frozen section, MB4+ marbling score badge on the bag (can't remember the brand but easy enough to find), seems to be local Angus. I spotted it a month ago and yes, surprisingly it was good. Other than that I prefer Friendship over BigC extra. 

 

For steaks, age it.

Age frozen steak?

[DrTuner]

5 hours ago, baansgr said:

Price dosn't necessarily mean quality...marinating and how cooked can make the cheapest cut just as good. Food mart on Thappraya I find is good enough.

Yes for burgers and such mincing flank together with softer bits gives it a nice taste, no need for marbled cuts. But he mentioned steaks and mignon so marbling is essential and the vast majority of local rubber cows have none.

[DrTuner]

20 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Age frozen steak?

Yeah, will work just fine. Keep it wrapped in butcher's paper under 4 DegC for a few days. It won't be same as dry aged, but better than simply slapping it on a pan. Put a UV light in the fridge if scared of contamination.

 

Remember since the top layer will be desiccated a bit, you'll want to make it medium rare on a piping hot cast iron skillet with clarified butter. Won't need anything else except salt and pepper.

 

Of course you can go full on mad scientist on them too: 

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by DrTuner

[WaveHunter]

On 12/6/2019 at 5:58 AM, baansgr said:

Price dosn't necessarily mean quality...marinating and how cooked can make the cheapest cut just as good. Food mart on Thappraya I find is good enough.

I went there to Foodland on Thappraya since it's right next to my condo, and bought Brahman Rib-Eye because back in the States I love Rib-Eye. 

 

It looked nice being a thick cut and all marbled and everything, so I bought 5 of them to keep in my freezer and one to cook for dinner that night.

 

Maybe Rib-Eye means something different here in Thailand but it was probably the worst steak I've ever had!  It was so tough it was hard to cut with a steak knife, had lots of gristle, and was not juicy at all, and had no flavor to speak of!

 

I know how to pan-fry steak so the fault was not in preparation.  The next day I tried to tenderize it with course kosher salt for an hour before cooking...and not much improvement at all.

 

If I love American Rib-eye steak, what should I be looking for here in Thailand, and where should I be looking...because Brahman Rib-Eye is clearly not it, and that was the best I saw at FoodLand, so Foodland is not the place to go.

Edited December 17, 2020 by WaveHunter

[jacko45k]

13 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

If I love American Rib-eye steak, what should I be looking for here in Thailand, and where should I be looking...because Brahman Rib-Eye is clearly not it, and that was the best I saw at FoodLand, so Foodland is not the place to go.

I have bought Australian Rib-eye from Big-CX on Klang and thought it okay. You can buy individually wrapped ones and I preferred to do that as I don't want to freeze any. 

[Henryford]

Where is the Foodland on Thappraya?

[thaiflyer1]

51 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Where is the Foodland on Thappraya?

Foodmart i guess

[Jeffr2]

On 12/6/2019 at 11:34 AM, DrTuner said:

There are farms like Chokchai in Pak Chong. Grasslands, I think that's where the majority comes from. Not sure what breeds, Chokchai itself is a dairy farm.

I had a steak on Kooh Mak, of all places, that was the best I've ever had here in Thailand.  Local beef.  I'll try to find out where they get it from. 

[Olmate]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

I have bought Australian Rib-eye from Big-CX on Klang and thought it okay. You can buy individually wrapped ones and I preferred to do that as I don't want to freeze any. 

Call it scotch fillet.. Tastes better! ????

[ChakaKhan]

Avoid the vendors on Soi 6 ????   

[WaveHunter]

6 hours ago, Henryford said:

Where is the Foodland on Thappraya?

It's a great little supermarket...just not for beef ????

 

Location:  https://goo.gl/maps/VU5fgreJxzakzGsP6

[WaveHunter]

Somebody from another thread just posted a great source for top quality meats, fish, etc so I'm passing it on here in this thread:

 

https://manstonfoods.com/products/

Here's a couple of their page listings:

 

 

Also TKM FOODS (mentioned on page 1 of this thread looks pretty good.  They have a 16 page PDF of their products and price list you can download:

TKM.pdf 

 

Here's the cover page:

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by WaveHunter

[Guderian]

1 hour ago, WaveHunter said:

It's a great little supermarket...just not for beef ????

 

Location:  https://goo.gl/maps/VU5fgreJxzakzGsP6

 

Spot on! Earlier this year I noticed that they had Argentinian fillet steaks at under 300 Baht apiece in the freezer cabinet. I love Argentinian steak, so I bought one, but it had obviously been butchered by an imbecile as half of it was fillet and the other half was the chain that had been left in. Hah, no wonder it was cheap, the chain is mostly hard, inedible fat and nasty, tough silverskin, with a few bits of meat here and there.

[WaveHunter]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

 

Spot on! Earlier this year I noticed that they had Argentinian fillet steaks at under 300 Baht apiece in the freezer cabinet. I love Argentinian steak, so I bought one, but it had obviously been butchered by an imbecile as half of it was fillet and the other half was the chain that had been left in. Hah, no wonder it was cheap, the chain is mostly hard, inedible fat and nasty, tough silverskin, with a few bits of meat here and there.

Except for the butcher section, it's a nice little store.  I love the bakery section; really good fresh-baked bread and lots of unusual pastry type deserts.  A lot of the really unusual food products in the store are Russian, and quite tasty.  I like this store even if it is on the pricey side.

[EVENKEEL]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:34 PM, DrTuner said:

There are farms like Chokchai in Pak Chong. Grasslands, I think that's where the majority comes from. Not sure what breeds, Chokchai itself is a dairy farm.

Sakon Nakhon has a large stock yard with the french-thai beef.

[Bigmouth]

Big C extra carries Bangkok Bob's filets and ribeye's. The meat is Australian grain fed per the label. Always delicious and reasonably priced.

 

Also, SS Sausage (Be Happy) on Naukla Road has some great choices as well.