Meal # 18 Smoked Herring

I haven't blogged in a while because I am trying not to skip around but blog in an organized manner which meant that I would have to blog about my experience with the smoked herring I bought at the Caribbean Market. I have finally come to grips with it about 2 weeks later. Let me begin at the beginning. Amanda and my friends had put smoked herring on my list and it never really bothered me until I had to buy it. I was meandering about the market when I saw in plan sight a package of smoked herring. It was only a couple of dollars and I thought it didn't look bad at all. Just slices of the outer part of a small fish. It smelled profound however. Very smoky. Not bad just very smoky. I showed the hubby and he asked me what I plan to do with it. I had envisioned it on toasty crackers with cheese and olives. That sounded good plus cheese and olives were on my list as well and I was feeling the need to cross off more than just one thing. So I brought it home and a couple of days later opened it up. The smell was so salty that I felt as if I was deep sea fishing. I began to cut it and handle it with my bare hands (which I learned later was not a good idea) I cut it up and toasted it in the oven because I did not think cold would be the way to go. I ended up burning the edges which was the first really bad sign. I mean it was already smoked but... I finally took a little bite of the herring as I was making my appetizer. I almost gagged. It was so extremely salty the fact that I am thinking about it right now makes we want to drink some water. The amazing part was that I just kept right on making up these little toasted herring thingamabobs like I was actually gonna eat them. I told myself that my husband would eat them. He likes everything! So we sat down and admired my presentation which was the only good thing about this disgusting dish. We each popped one in our mouth (I some how thought that the olives and cheese would make the herring edible) and chewed and chewed and never got past the fishy salty, beef jerky texture. I eventually spit mine out. I picked all the olives and cheese off and tried to eat them but the herring had got to it first. Everything tasted and smelled like that nasty herring! Would life ever taste good again! Oh wait, I got a whiff of herring after I cleaned it all up and guess what? My hands reeked of herring for at least 2 days. Oh misery. A finally disastrous meal. It was bound to happen. I have moved on. I hope that I never, ever have the opportunity to eat this again.