Filet Americain
I learned about Filet Americain even before I came to the Netherlands. One of my favorite blogs, A Touch of Dutch written by an American living and working in the Netherlands, had posted about it a while back.
I really wanted to try it, since the name implies it's American-style, but nothing remotely like it exists in America. It's basically steak tartare, but here apparently the beef is ground up so fine it's basically meat puree. When it went on sale at Albert Heijn, I picked up a container, complete with chopped onions.
You know, it wasn't bad at all. The meat is such a paste-like consistency, and it's spiced so heavily, you actually forget it's meat at all. I spread it on crackers like I would eat hummus, and also had it between bread as a sandwich.
The last time I had raw beef, it was the wagyu beef carpaccio salad with sesame miso dressing at Matsugen in NY, last year. Ah, to have a paycheck again! To think that this was only the second of four courses. Totally unrelated to the Filet Americain from the supermarket.
Would I eat Filet Americain again? Probably. Would I buy it for myself again? Probably not.
