The divinely inspired marriage of wasabi and herring into wasabi herring is now changing the face of herring consumption. From left: wasabi sauce, picked herring, herrings in their natural state before being filleted and the classic herring in cream sauce with onions.
In Praise of Wasabi Herring
Like most sophisticated New Yorkers I consume a lot of sushi. For some reason, denizens of The Empire State can’t get enough of raw fish seasoned with all manner and type of exotic spices and veggies. It’s protein, it’s light and no one feels guilty consuming four pounds of the stuff (as opposed to potato kugel). There is however one form of sashimi that is the Rodney Dangerfield of fish – I’m talking about the lowly herring. Once consumed with much obsessive gusto by Jewish New Yorkers (on a par or exceeding that of lox/nova/smoked salmon) with the accretion of the new generation the demure herring has fallen out of favor with broad swaths of our society. Herring in wine sauce, matjes herring and herring in cream sauce were once staples of the New York Jewish diet. With the diminution of herring’s popularity, what is a self-respecting appetizing man to do? Throw in the towel? Move on to other aquatic creatures?
Well, thanks to some creative and inventive minds the herring is being rescued and reinvented (re-engineered even?) for an entirely new generation. Driven by the need to have something to eat with numerous shots of Scotch and other dark liquors on Saturday mornings by Modern Orthodox Jews (one can’t have spirituality without spirits) and equally needing some greater diversity from egg salad and vegetarian chopped liver (what, am I veggie chopped liver?) the geniuses at such Five Towns appetizing establishments as Schwartz’s in Gourmet Glatt and at Brach’s have come up with herring in green wasabi sauce. Now, this has taken herring into an entirely new dimension – a dimension of ancient Far East Asian wisdom – whereby in the deep Japanese tradition of appropriating Western inventions (the herring in this instance) like cars and TVs and making them way better, the herring has been liberated from it’s Lower East Side Jewish and Scandinavian roots and transported to the realm of gourmet sashimi thanks to being marinated in and with wasabi sauce. Truly an inspired and amazing combination of tastes (a “duh” combo like chocolate and peanut butter) it makes one wonder why no one had thought of this before. Now, I don’t know if this was invented in my little corner of Long Island (I’ll have to put a team of crack investigative journalists on this) but wasabi herring only made its appearance here less than a year ago and based on the reaction at Kiddush tables, I predict BIG things for wasabi herring globally.
Following up on this innovation, the appetizing gods have also recently devised herring in spicy pink mayo and in a mustard sauce and something called "Mediterranean Herring", not as good as the wasabi version but plenty original and tasty just the same. These are not your grandfather’s herrings. What it wash this down with? Why, Yamazaki 12 or 18-year-old Japanese Single Malt, naturally. The Japanese have managed to deconstruct Scotch and put it back together again even better than they do in Scotland. Bonsai bubby!
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