(FORTUNE Magazine) – After a long day of marauding across the Mongolian plain, cooking was the last thing a Tartar had time for. So he'd put a slab of meat under his saddle, let it ripen there for a day or two, then slice it up and eat it raw.

Things have come a fair distance since the Middle Ages. The classiest post-pillage pick-me-up these days is the steak tartare served at Manhattan's "21" CLUB. At your table, the waiter concocts a brew of English mustard, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and a raw egg, then adds ground beef, hard-boiled egg, red onion, anchovies, and capers. He presents the rosy mound with a plate of rye-toast points.

"A few times a week, people send it back to be cooked," says Erik Blauberg, the executive chef. Everyone else is treated to a delicacy with the consistency of foie gras but a taste that's more bracing.

Also renowned for tartare: 72 MARKET STREET in Venice, Calif., and LES HALLES in Washington, D.C. In Paris, where the Middle Ages never went out of style, try LA TABLE DU MARCHE.

--Ronald B. Lieber