We tried pickled herring in a cream sauce on our walking tour of the lower east side. Russ and Daughters is a place I would like to eventually go and eat at, but herring in a cream sauce won’t be one of the items I get. It was interesting to try for the first time but the herring was a little to fishy for my liking. The cream sauce did cover the fishy taste up a bit but it was a little to much for me.

I tried Poke in Smorgasburg. Poke is a tunafish salad usually served cold. I tried it on the last day of Smorgasbord in November and it was pretty cold. The tuna is made with limukohu seaweed, wasabi, green onions and sesame oil. The poke was very good, it didn’t have any fishy flavor to it, it tasted fresh. The seasoning they put on it added to the flavor of the poke. I enjoyed the poke very much but I think it would’ve been more enjoyable if it was consumed in the summer. I tried in on a cold November day and I was looking for something more hot than cold. Overall,  poke is a great cold salad meant to be eaten on a hot summer day. I’m looking forward to trying other varieties of poke.

I tried escargot at Balthazar Restaurant. Escargot was an interesting dish to try. A delicacy for many. The escargot was served in a garlic parsley sauce. They give you special tongs and a special fork to eat it. Each snail had parsley stuffed inside the shell. The snail itself was very chewy to eat. The snail had a very earthy flavor to it, but it was pretty much smothered in the garlic parsley sauce. I think without the sauce the escargot would taste very weird, but with all the sauce it was very good actually. Overall, I liked escargot, when I was younger I was never expecting to try escargot. I’ve seen some of my family member eat it and thought it was weird.

I had scotch eggs from Imperial Egg in Smorgasburg. I tried the Moroccan spiced lamb. The egg is breaded and fried and stuffed with a smoked yogurt sauce on top. I wasn’t expecting to try the most delicious egg ever. The scotch egg had so much flavor and texture in such a little package. The crunch on the outside and the nice soft boiled egg in the inside added a nice texture. The flavor of the moroccan spiced lamb was well seasoned and very flavorful. The smoked yogurt sauce was a nice touch too, instead of the egg being dry it had a nice sauce. Overall, I loved the scotch egg and would love to eat it again.

My first food first is grilled octopus. I had this octopus in Taverna Kyclades in Astoria Queens. The grilled octopus legs was served on a hot plate with olive oil on it and cucumber, it also had an arrangement of herbs and spices on it. The flavor of the octopus legs alone didn’t have much of a taste, or it didn’t taste fishy at all. The olive oil, herbs and spices pretty much covered up the taste of it. It did have a nice grilled charred flavor. The octopus legs was very chewy and hard to finish towards the end. Overall, I liked the octopus legs because of the charred flavor and its herbs and spices.