HERRING AND YOUR HEALTH 👌👌👌👌👌

                                                                  MERCURY IN FISH

 EVER DANCE WITH THE HERRING?

 
She has very nice recipes and writes great cookbooks, but I don't think her palate has matured in the decade since this article came out: " if savoring herring is the ticket into heaven, then I am most certainly doomed." 😎

                                                                 Source: https://forward.com/food/317978/beyond-the-bagel-herring-not-a-love-story/

By Leah KoenigJuly 27, 2015

A trio of pickled herring on pumpernickel from Russ & Daughters Café (above) may be an exemplary version of the classic Eastern-European breakfast staple — but it couldn’t convince our author to give up her intense dislike of the stuff.

I want to love herring. I do. The oily little fish are healthy (packed with fatty acids), relatively sustainable and, most relevant to my purposes, one of the hallmarks of Eastern European Jewish cuisine. Pickled herring on brown bread sustained my ancestors for generations. And served with kichel (egg cookies) and a shot of schnapps, they were once the center of the .

There is one problem. I hate herring — I really, really do. Over the years, I have dutifully tried it over and again, pickled with onions, steeped in wine and coated in cream. And each time, it sets off gag reflexes. It’s just too pungent, too fishy, too much. My response brings shame to my name as a food writer and dashes any dreams I might harbor of one day retiring to Boca Raton.

Strangely, despite my own culinary aversions, I fully support the diminutive little critters. I love that herring is enjoying something of a comeback, and I would happily proclaim it the ideal Jewish breakfast food — as long as I do not have to personally eat it.

In soul, if not in body, I am on Team Herring.

Last Friday, my husband, Yoshie, and our 1-year old, Max, and I ate breakfast at the Russ & Daughter’s Café — the year-old outpost of the esteemed, century-old appetizing shop on New York’s Lower East Side. The café brings to life the lost tradition of New York’s grand dairy restaurants, serving blintzes with fruit compote, kasha varnishkes, chilled borscht with sour cream and a dream lineup of cured salmon, smoked sable and, naturally, pickled herring. Even the marble floor, one of many gorgeous, vintage design elements in the cafe, has a herringbone pattern.

If there were anywhere that could convince me to tolerate (I won’t even pretend to say “love”) herring, it would be Russ & Daughters. So along with a plate of latkes, a Super Heebster bagel (topped with an unorthodox but remarkably delicious mix of whitefish salad, horseradish dill cream cheese, and wasabi-infused roe), a bowl of delicate, smoked whitefish chowder and a plate of lox, eggs and onions, we ordered a trio of pickled herring on pumpernickel.

I worked my way around the table, crunching my fork into the latkes, spooning bites of whitefish towards Max and eyeing the pretty plate of canapés sitting just to my right. The fish glistened with pearly iridescence. It was fatty and fleshy. I asked Yoshie to try them first. “It’s really great herring,” he said, chewing thoughtfully. “But it is definitely herring.”

Then he fed some to Max, who showed up his mother by happily gobbling two slippery hunks of the stuff. As the meal dwindled, the pressure began to build. How could I pass by the opportunity to try what is almost certainly the best herring in the city? How could I look my husband and baby boy in the eyes and then cave to my weak taste buds?

Taking a deep breath, I took half a herring canapé layered with mustard and shredded apple, thinking the formidable toppings might mask the fishy flavor. I chewed minimally and swallowed quickly. I may have eaten the entire bowl of applesauce from the latke platter as a chaser.

The verdict? I’ll leave it at this: I will remember our breakfast at Russ & Daughters Café as elegant, nostalgic without an ounce of kitsch and inimitably delicious. But if savoring herring is the ticket into heaven, then I am most certainly doomed.

 THIS GUY IS WORRIED ABOUT HAVING HERRING BREATH AND STINKY FINGERS--  GIVE ME A BREAK! 😂😂😂

 

 

 American Kids Try Dutch Herring- Two Out of Three Ain't Bad 

 DEFINE THE WORD "KICHEL"

A kichel is a herring aid !!!! 😋😄

https://aish.com/is-kichel-a-cracker-or-a-cookie/

                                                 

 A STORY FOR YOU HERRING LOVERS OUT THERE 💓

I can’t remember the day I became aware of herring. It would be like remembering the moment I knew there were such things as trees or hands. Nor can I pinpoint the first time I took note of my father’s Saturday morning herring routine. But I do know that by the age of consciousness, I could expect Saturday mornings to unfold this way: My father would get dressed, go downstairs, open the refrigerator door, take out a shallow plastic container, and carefully open the lid to remove three or four pieces of pink, shimmering, oily herring, which would slide and wriggle onto his plate as if they’d just been plucked from chilly waters off Scandinavia. And just as consistent as my father’s routine was the way my mother, my siblings, and I would react: with a combination of horror, disgust, and mimed gestures of gagging.

In fact, so great was our disgust with the smelly, slithering fish, that for a while, we made my father eat the herring outside. In the New York winter. In the snow.

While herring never touched my lips for the first 30 years of my life, I knew things about herring, just like a child who grows up in the schmatte business knows a thing or two about exports and imports. For example, I knew that not all herring is created equal. In fact, herring is so varied that a man’s choice in herring is nothing less than a window to his soul, a way of showing the world whether he is a kind, philosophical man, or a bore who never once stopped to smell the flowers. In the class hierarchy of herring, I was taught that matjes, my family’s choice, was for the classy, discerning, sophisticated people; pickled was for people who, though good and upright, did not have the finest taste; and schmaltz—God forbid, schmaltz—was for the shtetl folks, the peasant people who temperamentally are simply not able to discriminate.

Whether it’s true or not, I accepted the wisdom that herring was just another one of the Eastern European Jewish foods destined to fade away from modern cuisine, becoming the provenance of a small group of passionate connoisseurs. It was to be relegated to that dusty shelf, to sit alongside ptcha—warm, garlic jelly made out of calves’ feet—and kishka, stuffed derma so high in fat that the USDA classification system can barely categorize it. As far as my palate was concerned, I could have gone on living my life content without herring, even learning to make a certain peace with it, like an American in England watching people eat marmite—tolerant, if not a little disdainful.

But after years of theatrically gagging upon seeing my father eat herring, I gave in. For the first time, at age 30, I tasted it.

It was one of those Saturday mornings when I happened to be home. My father took out the herring; I made a horrified face. He said, “Shira, you like sushi right?” I nodded. “And sushi is raw fish?” I nodded, increasingly aware that I was being backed into a logical corner from which there would be no escape. My father continued: “Well, herring is raw fish also, just cured with spices, salt, and oil.” Now, I can recognize a good, logical argument when I hear one. I like—no, I love—sushi. Sushi is like herring. Therefore, perhaps, I loved herring?

I pierced the herring with a fork. I lifted it to my mouth with the ceremony of someone taking an elixir that, though vile, must be imbibed. I dropped it into my mouth.

It was intense. Acidic and biting, yet soft, almost meltingly tender. Sweet but salty, robust yet elusive. After my first bite, I was confused. The herring wasn’t necessarily delicious, but it was undeniably intriguing. It was as if herring was unknowable, so perplexing and disarming a combination of tastes that it was addictive by sheer virtue of its mystery. And I wanted to, well, know it again. So, I took a second piece. More flavors, more contradictions. Suddenly, after years of dismissing this modest fish, I understood my father’s passion for it, the artisan and poet’s search for the beauty and perfection that is found in a good piece of fish.

That’s how, in a matter of minutes, after a lifetime of forswearing this particular food, I came to sit down with my father at the same herring table. These days, when Saturday mornings arrive and I am at my parents’ house, I join my father in his weekly ritual, as we carefully open the lid of the herring container and eagerly await the first taste of our beloved fish. Will this week’s vintage be too salty, too oily, or will it achieve herring nirvana, that perfect harmony of spices and wine?

Recently I asked my father how he felt about my herring turnaround. “It was the happiest day of my life,” he answered, jokingly. “The only thing better will be your wedding day.” But I know he’s delighted about it, and I can detect a new enthusiasm in the texts and emails he sends before visiting me in D.C. “Mommy and I are going now to buy the herring,” he’ll write. “How much do you want? And if they have herring in cream, do you want to try that also?”

These days, when my father and I sit down to eat herring, my young nephew is the one who looks at the shiny, pink fish and wrinkles his nose. Like my father used to do, I dismiss this child with a laugh and a wave of my hand, knowing that in 20 years time, he’ll be sitting with us at the table.

(In the meantime, the annual “new catch” Holland herring arrives next week, promising herring nirvana for everyone.)

source: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/food/articles/herring-and-my-father

 If not for herring, why go to Amsterdam? 😂😂😂

 HUH? ARE THESE GUYS FOR REAL????

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-would-be-the-impact-of-eating-1400-pickled-herrings-in-2-weeks

I'LL TELL YOU ONE THING-- IF I'M GETTING UP IN THE MORNING AND HAVING HERRING, I WON'T BE DRINKING COFFEE WITH IT. THERE BETTER BE SOMETHING ELSE TO DRINK IN THAT MUG!!!! 😜

 

 

Only the Dutch LOVE herring??-- yeah, right 😏😏😏

 OK- LETS GO TO HERRING SCHOOL!! 🐟

So, what is herring anyway? Yes, most people know that herring is a fish, but many don’t get further than that. Some may go on to describe herring as a small fish. This is also correct. As a close relative of the sardine and the shad, herring is indeed a smaller fish. Herring might have the reputation of being a “fish” like any other, but we would argue that it achieves a bold and assertive flavor profile when it is pickled.

It’s fascinating that people don’t know more about this small but mighty fish, so we’re here to arm you with all that there is to know about the hardy herring! Who knows, maybe this will motivate you to venture out of your comfort zone and try it, if you haven’t already. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed!

FOR THE WHOLE STORY ON ACME'S YUMMY HERRING, READ THIS:

https://acmesmokedfish.com/blogs/news/meet-the-herring-a-glossary-of-herring-varieties