Meat jun
Meat jun is thin marinated beef dipped in egg and pan-fried, served up plate-lunch style with rice and mac salad. It has a Korean name, but you will really only find it in Hawaii. It was one of my after-school favorites.
What it is
Meat jun is paper-thin beef, marinated in shoyu and sesame, then dredged in a little flour, dipped in beaten egg, and fried just until the egg sets into a soft golden layer. It is not a heavy batter. The egg is thin and glossy, and the beef is so thin it cooks in about a minute a side. You cut it into strips and eat it with rice, usually as part of a plate lunch next to mac salad and a scoop of kim chee.
A short history
Korean families started coming to Hawaii in 1903 to work the plantations, and over the next few generations Korean food worked its way onto the local plate lunch, right alongside the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Portuguese cooking that was already there. Meat jun shows up in that mix in the 1970s. A lot of people trace it to a spot called Kim Chee Number One in Kaneohe on Oahu, which put it on the menu and made it a plate lunch regular.
Here is the part that surprises people: even though the name comes from Korean, meat jun is not really a dish you find back in Korea. It grew out of jeon, the family of Korean egg-battered pan-fried foods, but the beef version served this way is a Hawaii creation. Korean families here built it to fit the plate lunch, and it stayed local.
How to make it at home
This is a weeknight dish once the beef is sliced thin. If you can, buy it pre-sliced from a Korean or Japanese market, the kind cut for bulgogi or shabu shabu. The marinade is lighter than bulgogi, less sweet, more shoyu and sesame.
Meat jun
Serves 4, about 30 minutes plus marinating time
For the beef
- 1 lb beef, sliced very thin (about 1/8 inch), top round or ribeye
- 1/4 cup shoyu
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
For frying
- 1/2 cup flour, for dredging
- 3 eggs, beaten
- Neutral oil, for the pan
Dipping sauce, optional
- 2 tbsp shoyu, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil, a little chopped green onion, a pinch of gochugaru
Steps
- Stir the marinade ingredients into the beef and let it sit in the fridge, 2 to 4 hours. Longer than that and it gets too salty.
- Set up a plate of flour and a bowl of beaten egg. Heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet over medium.
- Take a slice of beef, dredge it in flour and shake off the extra, then dip it in the egg to coat.
- Lay it in the pan and fry about a minute a side, until the egg is set and golden. Do not crowd the pan.
- Drain on a rack or paper towel. Cut into strips and serve with hot rice and the dipping sauce.
Getting the egg layer right
The egg is the part that makes it meat jun instead of just marinated beef, and it is the part people get wrong. It should be a thin, soft, golden sheet clinging to the meat, not a puffy omelet and not a crust.
Beat the eggs properly, until the yolk and white are one color with no streaks. Streaky egg fries unevenly and you end up with pale patches and rubbery ones.
The flour dredge before the egg is not optional, even though it looks like it should be. Marinated beef is wet, and egg slides right off wet meat. A thin dusting of flour gives the egg something to hold. Shake off the excess. You want a haze, not a coating.
Keep the pan at medium. Too hot and the egg browns and toughens before the beef is done. Too cool and the egg soaks up oil and goes greasy. You are looking for about a minute a side, and the egg should set to a soft gold, not a deep brown.
Work in batches and do not crowd the pan. Crowded meat steams instead of frying, and the egg goes pale and wet. Wipe the pan between batches if bits start to burn.
Slicing the beef
Thin is the whole game. You want it close to paper, thin enough to see light through. At that thickness it cooks in the time the egg takes to set, which is the point.
The easy route is to buy it pre-sliced. Any Korean or Japanese market will have beef cut for bulgogi or shabu shabu, and either works. Ask for bulgogi cut if you are unsure.
If you are slicing it yourself, freeze the beef for about thirty minutes first. Firm meat slices clean, soft meat tears and drags. Use a sharp knife and cut across the grain. Top round, sirloin, or flank all work. If a slice comes out thicker than you wanted, lay it flat and give it a few taps with the flat of the knife or a mallet.
Questions I get
- How is this different from bulgogi?
- The marinade is lighter, less sugar and more shoyu and sesame, and bulgogi never gets the flour and egg treatment. Bulgogi is grilled or seared straight. Meat jun is pan-fried in the egg layer, which makes it softer and richer.
- Can I use chicken or spam?
- Yes, and people do. Chicken jun with thin sliced thigh is common, and spam jun shows up at potlucks. Same flour, egg, fry routine.
- Do I have to marinate it overnight?
- No. Thin beef takes marinade fast. Thirty minutes on the counter does real work, and a few hours in the fridge is plenty. Overnight is fine too but not required.
- What do I serve it with?
- Plate lunch style: two scoops of rice, a scoop of mac salad, and kim chee on the side. The dipping sauce goes in a small bowl for everyone to share.
Leftovers reheat fine, and cold meat jun straight from the fridge is honestly its own kind of good. If you want more island cooking, here is how I make spam musubi.