A new taste sensation

Among Europeans, Americans have the reputation of eating meat overdone, which is why it strikes me as odd that the Belgian "filet américan" or "steack américain" is raw ground beef--with seasoning of course. And a raw egg on top. It's our steak tartare. I've eaten carpaccio, the Italian dish made of transparently thin slices of raw beef, and loved it, but the idea of eating what looks like uncooked hamburger (not really--the cut of meat is better) has never appealed to me. So I ordered it today...kind of by mistake. Rita and I stopped at the Pain Quotidien to have lunch and buy bread, and the basil-beef openfaced sandwich looked good. The waitress warned me that the beef was uncooked, but I was thinking it'd be like carpaccio. And I got to thinking that one day before we leave I should try filet américain just to say I'd done it. Then the sandwich arrived: triangles of bread spread with raw ground beef, topped with shavings of parmesan. It was good. And now I've eaten it.