"herring" news and stories

Technically, there is no such thing as National Herring Month.

That said, if herring were to have its own month, it would be June, which marks both the beginning and end of the all too brief New Catch Holland herring season. New Catch Holland herring, or Hollandse Nieuwe, are raw, barely cured herring caught at their fatty peak and prized for their rich, buttery texture: they're like the sushi of Northern Europe.

The New Catch season lasts only a few precious weeks, and functions almost as a PR campaign for the homely, humble herring. While our own country has never given the silvery fish the love it deserves, it has been a staple of the Northern European and Scandinavian diet for centuries, and instrumental in the waxing and waning fortunes of kingdoms and nations.

And fourth-generation co-owner of New York's Russ & Daughters Niki Russ Federman (pictured after the jump) knows from herring (Holland and otherwise). Besides being a shrine to smoked salmon, her family's shop functions as the U.S.'s ground zero for New Catch Holland herring, which they import directly from Holland.

We asked Federman for a Herring 101 and she complied, describing everything from the fish's storied health benefits to its place in European history after the jump.

My husband and I have similar tastes in many things like music, decor, 19th century English literature, mayonnaise brands, etc. It makes for pretty smooth sailing day to day, but there are a few notable exceptions -- namely that if given a jar and a fork, I'll gobble down marinated herring like a rabid porpoise, and the very sight of cured fish sends him swimming as far upstream as he can get.

In the interest of marital accord, I hold off my pesce-centric binges for times when he's out of town or at his office on a weekend, and I was very amused to learn that other friends of mine make the same sort of bargains with their partners. One friend has a similar anchovy pact with her husband, another's wife goes into a broccoli rabe munching frenzy when he's away for a day or two, and my very own grandfather acquiesced to my grandmother's wishes that he only eat Limburger outside of the house. His compromise? He set up a cheese-eating outpost in their backyard.

Do any of you have culinary agreements with a partner, family member or roommate due to their repulsion or yours? Are there any foods that trump the bonds of love or friendship? Share 'em in the comments below.

More on Guilty Displeasures

A few months ago I wrote about a beef and potato sundae, which many found to be at the very least bizarre, if not completely unappetizing. Worth1000, the Photoshopping web site, has just wrapped up a contest that involved combining dinner with dessert. I came across it while trolling the web last night and, thus, haven't seen the results yet.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the contestants didn't actually cook anything, rather they manipulated images to combine dinner and dessert. The entries I looked at made the meat sundae seem like a four-star meal. They ranged from a corn dog coated with ice cream and chocolate to Sundae Side Up, a fried egg with stripes of hot fudge whose yolk has been replaced with a scoop of chocolate ice cream.

But the, er, best was the herring in aspic pictured here. Clearly the chocolate coating studded with nuts and the stick were meant to riff on high-end ice cream pops. I fear it may be a while before I look at herring as appetizing.

Come on. Admit it. You don't need a single piece of furniture, and you certainly don't want to spend the time putting together a bookshelf when you've got to get dinner on the table. But sometimes, you just want to go scurry through the maze of perfect little made-up rooms at IKEA to get the prize at the end: Swedish meatballs.

But now there's even more reason to brave the warehouse of Swedish semi-DIY furniture maker IKEA. This fall, IKEA will roll out a complete line of privately branded food products to add to the meatballs, herring, and lingonberry jam they already offer.

Jan Kjellman, CEO of IKEA Food Services says that "prices will follow the IKEA spirit of cheap goods for everyone." A jar of herring will sell for just $1.

Mmmm. Herring.

Source

You might not get through airport security with a pair of tweezers (I didn't), and if you're carrying fermented fish, you won't make your flight either.

According to an article over at BBC, Swedish fermented herring known as surstromming has been banned from major airlines like British Airways and Air France. Even though the fish, fermented in barrels for months reportedly smells like rotting garbage, it's not the odor that offends. Airlines are saying that the cans in which the fish are stored are pressurized, which classifies them as explosives.

Good thing it wasn't the stink, or how else would I carry my little jar of kimchee with me when I travel?!?