What in "tartare"nation?!?

Yesterday I went to a restaurant called The Hippopotamus Grill.  It’s a French place that my host mom keeps recommending to me. She goes there all the time with her friends, and even though it’s a chain, she swears it’s fantastic…and how could it not be, with a name like that? I had high hopes for the hippo.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. The place was great. The staff was really friendly, there were lots of options, and the prices were very reasonable. The Hippo’s specialty is red meat, so I decided that it was a good time to try a steak tartare. I’ve wanted one for a while, but was waiting for the right opportunity. They’re always either way too expensive or from a random little restaurant where I’m just not quite willing to risk it.  So I ordered the tartare, and out it came in all of its totally raw ground beef glory, complete with a raw egg on the side to pour over it.

I was fine with the beef; it was the egg that was really giving me the creeps, jiggling around in a little dish on the plate. But I decided that if I was going to have the full “steak tartare experience,” I needed to do it right. So I dumped the egg on the beef and surprisingly, it made absolutely no difference to me, flavor-wise. I wonder what the point of the egg is? I assume it’s a texture thing.

Anyway, it was quite tasty. Stop turning your nose up (I know you are!) and give it a chance! You could tell that the beef was really high quality and fresh. They also give you a dipping sauce on the side that was a little bit horseradish-y. The only downside to the meal was that it sat pretty heavy in the belly for a while.

Great experience, and I have not keeled over or contracted a dreadful parasite from eating a hunk of raw beef (yet...).