Tuna Tartare: The Poké of the ’80s

Tuna tartare is the poké (bowl) of the eighties. And thanks to the hype surrounding the Hawaiian trend dish with chunks of raw marinated salmon or tuna, there’s room once again for the classic from a few decades ago.

NYC seems to be leading the revival of chopped raw tuna belly, which reached its peak at the height of the fusion craze, when bluefin tuna still swam around unthreatened.

Japanese-ish

Back then, no menu could be printed without featuring the salmon-and-tuna-tartare duo. Naturally with something Japanese-ish on the side: a soy sauce, citrus and sesame seeds. This was because of the fusion idea of East meets West. With the tuna apparently representing the Western element, although it was usually caught in Eastern waters.

From east-meets-west, tuna tartare is now universal.

The difference from poke? Tartare is usually chopped more finely, and the other ingredients are mixed with the tuna into one mass. With poke, the rest is instead layered individually on top of the standard marinated tuna. The biggest difference: tuna tartare isn’t served in a bowl, but in a perfect circle on a flat plate.

Shiso

The tuna tartare now resurfacing on many New York trend menus still leans Japanese. Like the one at Gotham Bar & Grill with ginger and shiso.

But chef Ignacio Mattos’s version at Flora Bar takes a holistic, universal approach with Mediterranean olive oil, egg yolk, Asian fish sauce, South American chili pepper, Italian black truffle and crispy potato chips (!). All of that in a mix of yellowfin and bluefin—the latter sustainably farmed in Spain.

Tuna tartare isn’t served in a bowl, like poke.

In our own New York, Amsterdam, New York chef in-the-know SammyD. from Wyers restaurant serves a vitello tonnato in which the tonnato isn’t tuna sauce and the vitello isn’t thin slices of roasted veal. Instead, the two animals are united in a tartare resting on a slice of lardo atop robust toast, and covered with that other eighties classic: frisée salad.

Tartar-ia

Still, it’s Austrian chef Michael Wolf who thoroughly outdid the New Yorkers last year at his Amsterdam-based Wolf Atelier with his Tartar-ia. There, he serves not only tuna tartare with a yuzu-and-soy vinaigrette, wasabi nuts, jalapeño mayonnaise and daikon, but also tartares of steak, salmon, grilled vegetables and eggplant.

Tsk, New York—you can’t even compete with your tuna tartare with caviar from Bar Masa.

Go ’80s yourself with this tuna tartare recipe by FavorFlav’s Emma.