Tartare — chopped raw meat seasoned with a few pungent accouterments and capped with a raw egg yolk — is a perfect summer dish. But that hasn’t stopped some NYC chefs from putting their own twists on it. Here are five variations worth trying.
Carrot tartare
$15 at The NoMad Bar, 10 W. 28th St.; 347-472-5660
Chef Daniel Humm lifts a riff from his four-star Eleven Madison Park prix-fixe playbook for a healthy take on a classic: Instead of raw meat, whole sous-vide carrots are coarsely chopped and mixed with sunflower seeds, shredded horseradish and mustard seeds.
The carrot’s creamy texture mimics that of the bar’s other tartare preparations: bluish-red tuna with pine nuts, apple and mint; and classic beef with cornichons and horseradish.
Served together as a trio, they’re contenders for summer’s swankiest snack.
Beef tartare with sunchoke
$16 at Estela, 47 E. Houston St.; 212-219-7693
Chef Ignacio Mattos skips the traditional accoutrements (capers, onions, pickles), opting instead for crushed shards of golden-fried sunchokes and tart little orbs of pickled green elderberries.
Steak tartare club sandwich
$15 at Thirty Acres, 500 Jersey Ave., Jersey City, NJ; 201-435-3100
Across the Hudson, chef Kevin Pemoulie hand-cuts rosy beef into uniform, minuscule cubes and moistens them with creamy yuzu mayo.
Then he layers it, diner-style, between three slices of toasted rye bread with crunchy baby romaine and smoky bacon.
Lamb tartare
$15 at The Cannibal, 113 E. 29th St.; 212-686-5480
That Cannibal owner Christian Pappanicholas dedicates an entire section of the menu to raw meat shouldn’t surprise anyone.
His simplest and best version blends pinkish, velvety lamb with spicy harissa aioli and pungent raw red onion, with plenty of grilled sourdough on the side.
Steak tartare Madeleine
$14 at Prune, 54 E. First St.; 212-677-6221
When Gabrielle Hamilton revamped the menu at Prune this spring, she added a classically French steak tartare preparation.
Named after her mother, Madeleine, it features rosy chopped beef atop a square of rye bread smeared with Vegemite and butter. Scattered atop are rings of red onion, whole capers, chives — and an egg yolk.