TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Grocery Store

Where would you recommend to get a great steak
To be cooked at your own place

Carrefour or Super U

Buy the steak at home and bring it with you.It will be better then anything you could buy down there.

I respectfully disagree. Wherever you buy it depends on the steak IMO. Also trying to support our friends here by not bringing stuff from home to cook. 🤔

Need a "like" button!

Back in the early 90's I brought meats.(Ram's was scary! lol)
Haven't done that since Grand Marche and Super U opened.

Depends what your criteria of cut and grade is for a good steak. If your looking for prime its hard to find on island.

Thanks also are there butchers that would cut
one to order or just buy what’s all ready cut.

Super U!

We buy our Steaks from Merchants Market . Good deal with New Zealand cuts.

Where is this, Lesley? I can’t place the name with a location. Would it be safe to guess they might also have racks of lamb chops?

I think that is where the restaurants buy their meat. I believe it is in Cole Bay. Perhaps Leslie will jump in with the exact location.

I was under the impression that they had stopped allowing individuals to purchase---just the restaurants. If that is incorrect, please tell me because I would like to buy my meats there too

Orange Grove Road, the one that goes from Ex Harley Davidson down to PDG etc.

Yes Pat we also get their Rack of Lamb. They are located next to where Harley Davidson was located in Cole Bay. The road takes you directly to the Gas Station . And priced good too.

Once you want buy to their whole packages , no problem. We have been dealing with them for many years and just before Irma it had changed Ownership.
The Ex Owner was the Old Lady that had owned La Rosa Restaurant in Maho. The only problem is that inorder not to waste time , I call them ahead of time , hence when I do reach there my package is ready to be picked up. But if you just walk in to place an order , it will take some time.

Thank you, Elaine and Lesley. Right before Irma we saw great looking and well priced racks of lamb at Carrefour at Porto Cupecoy but went to try and find it last year when we were at BSV and they didn’t have any. The bigger stores had them but they didn’t look nearly as nice. Nor did the pricing. Will keep this in mind for our next BSV visit.

I've been involved with producing, promoting, and marketing beef here and exporting it for many years and I'm sure this may sound biased.
However, I can assure you that there is nothing better than U.S.Choice beef, preferably Angus or Certified Angus. I realize the price in
St. Maarten is two and half times more than in the mid-west, but that's what it takes to make it available.
Someone mention the New Zealand meat, which may be alright for slow cooking, but we prefer grilling to get the best flavor.
The U.S.importers use a lot of the New Zealand product to blend into the hamburger, you can guess why.

Are you saying Choice is better than Prime? And Angus is not certified by the USDA.
New Zealand makes a great lamb product. I prefer Rack of Lamb from NZ over anything the US produces.
And what about the price you mention in the "mid-west". That certainly is not the price we get on the coasts.
Not understanding your post.
But yes, we got US Prime at Merchant's Market back when we lived there. And the old lady that owned it and LaRosa was Cuban.
She liked her Johnny Walker and I had to have it on hand for her.
They were headquartered in WPB area I believe and had a home on PB.
Cheers
irina

From Wikipedia - formal USDA differences between Prime/Choice/Select Beef:

There are 3 main grades given by the USDA to Beef from the that is considered for consumption (taken from Wikipedia):
U.S. Prime – Highest in quality and intramuscular fat, limited supply. Currently, about 2.9% of carcasses grade as Prime.
U.S. Choice – High quality, widely available in foodservice industry and retail markets. Choice carcasses are 53.7% of the fed cattle total. The difference between Choice and Prime is largely due to the fat content in the beef. Prime typically has a higher fat content (more and well distributed intramuscular “marbling”) than Choice.
U.S. Select (formerly Good) – lowest grade commonly sold at retail, acceptable quality, but is less juicy and tender due to leanness.
All Certified Angus Beef®, by example, is graded Prime or Choice only.

That is an excellent take of beef grading. This will clear up some misconceptions posted earlier.

K Whatever dude!
Angus is a breed!
Have fun.
Cheers
irina

Correct. Angus is a breed. He didn't make a statement it wasn't. Just stated "All Certified Angus Beef®, by example, is graded Prime or Choice only." which is correct.

Let's really muck up the waters and throw in Wagyu! lol

Mmmmmm, beef!

Here is another question about beef. Grain fed or grass fed? Cows naturally eat grass and but most are are "feed lot" fed grain. I would think grass fed would be better than grain fed but there used to be a radio commercial for the restaurant at the weston exposing the benefits of grain fed beef. Just asking. I read that grain was not really good for grazing animals.

You are correct Bob. Cows were not meant to eat grain.

You are what you eat. There is a nutritional difference between grass fed and grain fed. Saturated fats.

If you really want to go in depth, read this:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed-beef#section2

So, does this place still sell individual or just bulk to restaurants?

You forgot "Beef"

Huh?

That would be redundant. WAGYU - a Japanese beef cattle breed – derive from native Asian cattle. 'WAGYU' refers to all Japanese beef cattle, where 'Wa' means Japanese and 'gyu' means cow.

I was referring to the TV commercial when he asked "what's for dinner" then says "Beef". Oh well. My funny failed.

Forgive please what is PDG?

Restaurant supply store named PDG