In Korea, Hanwoo beef can be butchered into as many as 120 different cuts to be utilised in different cooking preparations. — OLIVIA LEE
In the past few years, Korean culture has taken the world by storm, from K-pop to K-dramas to K-food.
In terms of Korean food, the most ubiquitous and recognisable Korean staple is probably Korean fried chicken. Other notable foods that Malaysians might have heard of include kimchi, bulgogi and bibimpap.
But have you heard of Korean Hanwoo (pronounced ha-nu) beef? Because it is fast gaining popularity among bovine purists, elite carnivores and gastronomes across the region.
The history of Hanwoo beef
In Korea, there is strong national pride in local produce, especially Hanwoo beef which has a revered position in the country. In fact, data from the Korean Meat Trade Association showed that even up to 2022, 99% of Hanwoo beef was used for domestic consumption.
This ties in to the cow’s almost sanctified position in Korean society, which dates back to the Three Han States period (57BC to 668AD), where cows held the same position as humans.
Hanwoo beef has a beefier flavour and less fat than wagyu. The beef also contains high amounts of oleic acid. — OLIVIA LEE
Things took a downturn during the Japanese colonisation of Korea, which began in 1905 and ended in 1945, after World War II. During that period, Korean cattle were systematically removed and sent to Japan.
Lim Chae-seong, a professor of economics at Rikkyo University in Japan published a book called Food Joseon. In it, the professor documents how approximately 40,000 to 60,000 cattle were taken every year, to supplement Japan’s farming industry.
Even the size of Korean cattle withered away and diminished during that period, from 224 kilos in 1930 to 185 kilos in 1942.
Since then, the Korean government has made every effort to improve and boost cattle in the country, especially Hanwoo which is a breed indigenous to Korea that has been around for thousands of years, pre-dating even Japanese wagyu, which it is constantly compared to.
According to an article in the South China Morning Post, the Korean government managed to increase the weight of Hanwoo cattle from 358 kilos in 1974 to 694 kilos in 2019.
Changing consumption patterns
There are four breeds of Hanwoo in Korea - brindle Hanwoo, brown Hanwoo, black Hanwoo and jeju black. Hanwoo is also known for being a breed that is smaller than other cows.
There are four breeds of Hanwoo cattle in Korea. Photo: OLIVIA LEE
Traditionally, Hanwoo was a working animal but after the Korean economy started experiencing rapid growth in the 1960s, it was bred for consumption, to keep up with soaring demand. This also progressively led to changing consumption habits in Korea, as beef was once something that was rare. Yet the growing popularity of Hanwoo meant it increasingly became the meat of choice for many Koreans.
In modern South Korea, there are now 3.6 million Hanwoo cattle, nearly double the amount of cattle from just 20 years ago.
This is in keeping also with the fact that Koreans are now consuming more beef than ever. Last year, meat consumption surpassed rice for the first time in Korean history!
For years, Hanwoo beef was a Korean staple - and a well-kept Korean secret. But with the explosion of K-culture, include K-dramas, where Hanwoo is regularly seen on dinner tables and at restaurants, this has all changed.
Olivia is a passionate Korean chef and entrepreneur who is hoping to bring in more Korean Hanwoo beef for Malaysians to enjoy, now that there is government approval for halal Hanwoo beef to be exported here. — OLIVIA LEE
In 2015, Hanwoo beef was exported out of the country for the first time, with Hong Kong being the first beneficiary country. To that list, Cambodia, Macau and UAE have since been added.
Last year, Malaysia joined the small, exclusive number of countries to which halal Hanwoo beef can now be exported. This follows the establishment of the first halal-certified slaughterhouse in south Korea in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province.
Malaysian ambitions
For the bubbly, hugely talented Olivia Lee, this couldn’t have happened at a better time
Lee is a south Korean national and former chef who has worked at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris. She is now an entrepreneur and owner of numerous businesses like Plan New and TasteK that supply premium Korean produce to restaurants, hotels and retailers.
While she was initially based in Singapore, she has now set up a company in Malaysia to spread awareness about premium Hanwoo beef from South Korea and to introduce more variants of the beef.
Jun says that pride in Korean Hanwoo is high in the country and he estimates that about 90% of Koreans and Korean restaurants will use Hanwoo beef. Pictured here is the striploin with salt that he made in Kuala Lumpur. — JUN LEE
“I want to bring more Hanwoo beef to Malaysia and make sure people know about it. That’s why I want to do more awareness programmes here.
“Because it is time that Hanwoo gets its moment in the spotlight. Malaysians love Korean culture and so when they think of beef, I want them to think of Hanwoo, because many people know about wagyu, so why not Hanwoo?” she says.
Lee’s first big launch last week involved a first-time showing of Korea’s revered halal MiGyeongSan Hanwoo beef, which accounts for 0.01% of Hanwoo beef (which means only a few hundred cows in the whole country qualify for this title) and is so rare that even Google yields no results.
MiGyeongSan Hanwoo beef is very, very special because it comes from ‘virgin cows’ or cows that have never calved. Even in Korea, few Koreans have tried it and the event marked the first time the cattle had ever made an appearance outside of Korea.
Aiming to go big right from the outset and really show what top-grade Korean Hanwoo can look like, Lee flew in top-tier south Korean chefs Jun Lee from the two Michelin-starred Soigne and Allen Suh from the two Michelin-starred Restaurant Allen (incidentally Korea only has nine Michelin-starred restaurants) to put together a menu that celebrated the beef’s finer features.
As a Michelin-starred chef, Jun travels frequently for collaboration dinners, but says that even when he is overseas he prefers to use Hanwoo beef. — JUN LEE
Both chefs are hugely proud of Hanwoo beef and say it is the beef of choice at their restaurants.
“I’ve travelled all over Asia for the past two years and Malaysia is the last stop for my Asia tour. And every single time I go to another Asian country, I see that people are just using imported products and the local produce is maybe 50% to 60%.
“But in Korea, we are very keen about Korean products. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to import some agriculture, but still, Korean people feel a little bit weird whenever they use imported stuff, especially beef.
The funny thing is that I’ve been invited to so many other events outside of Korea and they keep saying ‘Oh, when I went to your restaurant, I really liked your main course, which is Hanwoo. So, would you come to my country to showcase your food?
“But when I go there, what they give me is Wagyu. So I was like, ‘What’s the point of a Korean chef using Japanese beef to showcase Korean barbecue? It already started wrong. So every single time since I became a chef, I really want to use Hanwoo, or I really want to promote Hanwoo outside of Korea,” says Jun.
Characteristics of Hanwoo beef
So what makes Hanwoo beef so special? The cattle are renowned for their exceptional quality, especially the fact that they are raised in controlled environments.
Suh says when using superior Hanwoo beef, there is little that needs to be done to it because the quality of the meat speaks for itself. — ALLEN SUH
The best Hanwoo is believed to be the ones raised in Hoengseong in Gang-won do Province in south Korea. According to an article in The Manual, farmers here use unconventional methods to raise the cattle, including mixing their feed with pine leaf enzyme and keeping a radio on in the cattle pens.
Each Hanwoo cow also has a unique, traceable ID that is detected through the Beef Traceability System, which ensures total transparency. The cows are raised using proven breeding bulls and feeding plans that are tailored to each growth stage.
South Korea has its own beef grading system that assesses meat based on marbling, meat colour, fat colour, texture and maturity which is used to determine flavour, tenderness and overall quality. The system’s rating is based on Grades 1++, 1+, 1 and 2, with 1++ being the highest grade awarded.
The highest grade Korean Hanwoo with a rating of 1++ typically has a marbling of 22% to 24%, which gives it a juicier taste. Hanwoo beef is also rich in oleic acid, a type of monounsaturated fat that has earned the moniker ‘healthy fat’.
In Korea, Hanwoo can be butchered to yield up to 120 different cuts and is most often used to make the famed Korean barbecue so ubiquitous throughout the world now.
So what does Hanwoo beef taste like? At the special dinner curated by chefs Jun and Suh, the highlight of the menu was the K-BBQ Hanwoo in two ways cooked over banchan (charcoal). Jun made a striploin with salt while Suh’s dish was oyster blade marinated with soy sauce and other ingredients and then finished over charcoal.
The result? Sublime. Hanwoo beef has a more distinct beefy flavour and a texture that is supine and silken, but somehow yields a more significant chew and bite. It is also less fatty (about 40% fat) than wagyu (whose fat percentage can be up to 70%), which means it makes for a more long-lasting eating experience with no cloying after-effects.
“You know, when the product is so good, you don’t want to touch it too much. You just want to show how it’s supposed to be. Because it is a beef that tells its own story,” says Suh.
For Olivia meanwhile, this is only just the beginning of her Hanwoo invasion in Malaysia. While limited quantities of the MiGyeongSan Hanwoo are now available in gourmet grocer Culina KL, she has extensive plans to bring in more Hanwoo beef to restaurants and retailers.
“At the moment, Korean Hanwoo is about 20% cheaper than Japanese wagyu in Malaysia. So I want to bring in more choices of Hanwoo - there is top-quality Hanwoo and middle-market Hanwoo, so I want to bring in different grades for locals to try, because this is the time for Korean Hanwoo to shine, says Lee.
