#28 – SMOKED HERRING ON TOAST at JIMMY’S NO. 43

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Perhaps the biggest fear and stress I deal with when eating my way through Time Out’s list, aside from occasional indigestion, is that a restaurant will close or they will take one of the list items off their menu for good.

I know Jimmy’s No. 43 has a constantly changing menu yet I was incredibly dismayed when we stopped by the East Village beer haunt one evening to get their Smoked Herring on Toast and it was no longer on the menu. The hostess seemed to remember it being there once and said that the menu literally changes every day. Do you know how much paper they could save if they just stuck to one menu each season (or each week even)? But she attempted to give us a little glimmer of hope that the herring might one day return. I was less hopeful.

However, I figured we should stop by again since we were in the neighborhood on New Year’s Eve and see if maybe they were offering it as a welcoming in of the New Year. Doesn’t smoked fish seem very festive and appropriate for New Year’s? Yet I didn’t fully believe they would have it on their menu until we descended the basement stairs and adjusted our eyes to read the temporary menu in the dark.

And to my gleeful surprise, there it was right on the menu. Success!!! Now I just had to be sure they were not sold out of it.

The bartender wasn’t the friendliest of chaps, but he didn’t squash my dreams by giving me bad news. Instead, he poured me a great Double IPA and served us the smoked herring appetizer in no time flat. It was two crostinis blanketed with large pieces of smoked fish, a dollop of creme fraiche, piles of chopped onions, and a smatter of dill. I love this light type of dish so I was very excited for one of my final tastes of 2010.

The smoked herring was some of the best I’ve tasted. According to the menu, it comes from Russ & Daughters, which didn’t surprise me at all. In my mind, the freshness and full flavor of that fish was the best part of the dish so how much credit can I really give to Jimmy’s No. 43 for something a classic Jewish food shop down the street created?

Regardless, Jimmy’s still thought to use the product, top it on crunchy toast (which I found to be a little small and brittle for the size of the fish) and add all the other flavors which perfectly complemented the star of the show. And besides breaking apart rather easily and being difficult to eat, this was a wonderful starter to a night of drinking and debauchery (whether it’s New Year’s Eve or just a weekend).

Would the Smoked Herring on Toast make my Top 100 of the year? The herring certainly might and while the rest of the components were fresh and complimentary, I’m not sure the toast really added much to the already perfect fish. Still it can’t rate less than an 8 out of 10.