They Like it Raw

[Guest guest]

They like it raw

By & #8201;MAX GROSS

A good 20 minutes before the West Village Japanese restaurant Takashi opens its

doors at 6 p.m. on a recent Monday, there is already a line of hungry customers

forming out front.

Raij, 43, is one such customer. " We're super-excited, " says Raij, who had

enlisted her mother to watch her two kids so that she and her husband, Eder

Montero, 36, could dine out.

" We've been really keen to try it. "

What could have stoked such excitement in Raij — herself a busy chef at highly

regarded tapas spots Txikito and El Quinto Pino?

Raw meat.

Takashi is one of a small but growing number of restaurants around the city

catering to those who are rah-rah about consuming their animal flesh raw-raw.

The first dish to come out is the yooke, ground chuck prepared like a Japanese

version of steak tartare. Topped with a raw quail egg, it's adorned with

Japanese seaweed and an enormous shiso leaf.

It's also by far the tamest uncooked dish at Takashi, which gets its meat from

some of the better purveyors around, such as Dickson's Farmstand and Pat

LaFrieda.

There's the heart sashimi — the organ thinly sliced and simply dressed with

wasabi and soy. There's the namagimo — slivers of liver with sesame oil and rock

salt. And, perhaps wildest of all, there's the nama-senmai, a white, chewy third

stomach. (Cows have four stomachs — the third one is used to absorb nutrients.)

Flash-boiled but essentially raw, it's served with spicy miso sauce and

scallions and somewhat resembles a bowl of discarded computer parts. " I like

that snappiness, " says Raij of the stomach dish. But it's not her favorite. That

would have to be the niku-uni, beef tartare topped with sea urchin and wasabi.

" That was delicious. It really contrasted [with seared beef] in temperature and

flavor, " she says.

While New Yorkers have long embraced the concept of raw fish, our relationship

with raw meat has been more complicated. " Raw meats or undercooked foods leave

you at risk of infection [of parasites or a slew of other illnesses], " says Dr.

Mansour of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General

Hospital.

The health risks — including tapeworms — are not all that different than the

ones you face eating sushi. " If you are a person who is elderly, pregnant or

your immune system is compromised . & #8201;. & #8201;. you should think very

carefully about exposing yourself to raw foods, whether sushi or raw meat, " he

adds.

According to NYC's Department of Health, restaurants must notify diners when

food isn't cooked to required temperatures — either verbally or by printing this

on the menu. A diner may also request such a dish. Basically, it's buyer beware

— though the DOH says it will investigate complaints of people getting sick from

eating raw food. But with so many New Yorkers obsessed with high-quality

ingredients, meat so fresh it can be served raw is seen as a benchmark — not a

danger.

" There's no better way to sample quality than when all the other things are

stripped away, " says " Bizarre Foods " TV host Zimmern. The appeal of

eating raw is that one tastes the meat without the smoke or the char associated

with the cooking process.

And then there's the primal urge: " Since cavemen have been dragging a

brontosaurus leg to the homestead [people enjoyed raw meat], " adds Zimmern.

At downtown's Acme, you'll find endive leaves stuffed with a mix of raw bison

and sweet shrimp. At Manzo in Eataly, Piedmontese beef is hand-cut and ground to

order. Hakata Tonton, just a couple of blocks from Takashi, offers veal liver

sashimi on its menu, as does EN Japanese Brasserie on Hudson Street. Last fall,

Hecho en Dumbo in the East Village offered venison tartare on the chef's menu.

(It plans to bring it back next fall, too.)

" This is basically dzik, " says Danny Mena, chef of Hecho en Dumbo, referring to

the Yucatan specialty. Mena puts his own spin on the dish by soaking cubes of

raw venison in sour orange juice, radishes, red onion and cilantro.

And then there's raw chicken, a dish not for the squeamish. " There are a lot of

places in the city that serve raw chicken, " says Dave Pasternack, chef-owner of

Esca in Hell's Kitchen. But you might have to ask, with a nudge and a wink, to

go off the menu.

For some, raw meat is uncontroversial. " It's my soul food, " says Takashi's

Inoue, who grew up in Osaka. " That's how we eat in my home in Japan. The meat is

very, very fresh. "

At First Oasis, out in Bay Ridge, Said Albahri serves raw kebbeh — minced raw

lamb mixed with cracked wheat, onions and spices.

" Raw meat is very popular in Syria, " says Albahri, who grew up in Damascus. His

customers include plenty of Middle Easterners and locals — but also the

epicurious from as far away as Queens.

Still, some dishes haven't crossed the cultural divide. At the original branch

of Eataly in Turin, Italy, you'll find a raw sausage sandwich — an item you

can't get in NYC.

And despite the popularity of places like Takashi, it can still be a struggle to

get diners to try their meat raw. Mena only serves venison tartare on his

tasting menu, where there are no substitutions. " I would never put it on the

regular menu, " he says. But one can't argue with the reaction. " It was very

positive, " says Mena. " The customers might not have ordered [it if it was served

à la carte], but 99 percent of people would finish it. "

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