It's Herring Season!

by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
June 14, 2010

Grand Central Oyster Bar
Grand Central Terminal
Lower Level
89 E 42nd St
@ Park Ave
New York, NY 10017
212-490-6650
June 9 — 25, 2010
Filet: $7; Salad: $7.95

Aquavit
65 E 55th St
(Madison & Park Aves)
New York, NY 10022
212-307-7311
June 14 — 19, 21 — 26, 2010
Lunch: $24.07; Dinner: $35

Herring season is here and I’m excited to recommend two Herring Festivals that you cannot miss: Grand Central Oyster Bar’s Annual Holland Herring Festival and Aquavit’s Annual Herring Festival. The two festivals are stylistically different, but both are deliciously worthwhile.

At Grand Central Oyster Bar, Chef Sandy Ingber is serving herring filets with crumbled hard boiled egg, sweet onion, and chives at $7 per filet (photo above), and the herring salad for $7.95 per order. I love the pairing of the crumbled egg and onion with the fatty herring filet — it’s so refreshing! These plump and delicious Dutch herring are available now through June 25.

Aquavit Restaurant

At Aquavit, Chef Marcus Jernmark celebrates the restaurant’s annual Herring Festival with the herring smörgåsbord available at the Bistro at Aquavit. This smörgåsbord consists of classic herring preparations such as matjes herring, skånsk mustard herring, and creamy horseradish herring, as well as some seasonal herring dishes such as pickled ramp herring and pickled rhubarb and apple herring. The festival runs during two weeks in June, from June 14 – 19 and 21 – 26. At lunch it’s $24.07 per person, and during dinner it’s $35 per person.

Don’t wait! Did I already mention how gorgeously plump these herring are? I’m rushing back to both places for more herring during these next two weeks!