On Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the Second Annual Herring Festival in Park Slope. Organized by Pastor Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church with one of the owners of Two Boots, there was more raw herring than you've ever seen from Russ and Daughters on the Lower East Side.

"So what's the occasion?" I asked Meeter. He looked at me incredulously. "It's the celebration of the new herring," he told me.

According to Meeter, the celebration of the new herring is an old and treasured tradition in Holland. Sliding
a herring down your throat is just one way to participate in the festivities. As demonstrated by Meeter, you just pick up the little fish
by the tail and lower it into your mouth.

As Meeter explained, herring was a diet staple in the Netherlands for hundreds of years.

It was always plentiful in the North Sea and Dutch fishing boats didn't have far to go for those little fish. But the tastiest
herring were the newly matured fish caught in late spring: the green,
‘new’ herring.

The problem was figuring out how to preserve the new herring once the fishermen made their catch: Cleaning the fish on board ship and
salting it was the way to go.  According to an article on the About European Travel website, "as early as the 14th century
the Dutch made an important innovation. In cleaning, for the sake of
speed, they removed only the innards, and left the head, spine and
scales. But they did not remove the pancreas. Somehow they had
discovered that the pancreas contained enzymes that it continued to
secrete, even in the dead fish. These enzymes seasoned the meat, very
slowly, to render it tender and fit to eat raw."

So there you have it: the arrival of the "Hollandse Nieuwe" is a cause for joy all across Holland. And it looks like new herring is going to be an annual event here in Brooklyn, too.

Two Boots was a perfect venue for this burgeoning Park Slope tradition. Also on hand were bottles of Genever, an aged Dutch gin that is mighty good I can attest to that. "It's closer to Aquavit than regular gin," Hugh Crawford said. "Yummy stuff, though and good at cutting through the taste of herring which is quite a feat." In addition to the tasty herring treats and demonstrations of proper herring sliding techniques, friends and neighbors wandered in for a taste and spirited conversation.

See you next year!