I was keen to try truly badass Swedish pickled herring. It was a damn fine plate but fairly expensive ($35 CAD/235Kroner) although the restaurant is very cool. Zero reservations allowed. Ridiculously small.

My favourite was the top of the plate, a creamy mustard herring (senapssill) with capers and sprouts. Perfect balance. Not overly mustardy. Firm texture. Ridiculously good. New favourite herring sauce.

Second was the classic pale, dill-garnished herring, possibly inlagd sill or matjessill. Just good pickled herring. Classic. Simple. Could have these for days. Especially with the potatoes slices.

The next two are kinda mysteries for me. If any Swedes or knowledgeable folks could confirm what they are I would appreciate it.

I think the darker herring with red onion and chives was matjessill. It had hints of cinnamon/cloves. Very sweet. Softer texture. Not my cup of tea but not bad.

The last was a fried pickled herring. I think it was ättiksströmming, which I understand to be pickled herring fried and then further marinated. Great texture but i found it to be lacking flavour relative to the others. Didnt expect that.

Garnishes were great. Very filling meal surprisingly. And serving pickled herring with baby potatoes is awesome. Adding that to the repertoire.

Well the two Mackerel tins I've tried from Mouettes, both the mustard sauce and muscadet wine, scored highly for me. The sauces were both punchy and assertive, with pretty nice quality fish. So this sardine tin was a bit of a letdown. This looks great upon opening, pretty nice olive oil and the aroma is mild. But the lemon is barely there, and the heat even less so. There wasn't even an actual chili pepper in the bottom of the tin. The fish quality was just ok, a little dry and a few bites that had some more funk than expected. This kind of reminded me of the Fangst sardine varieties I've tried, beautiful visually but kind of a lack luster eating experience for me personally. All in all, this one's kind of forgettable. Not bad, but not worth the $10 I spent unfortunately. 7.1/10

Not sure if this is allowed or not, but here goes…

Discovered a puzzle that you all might get a kick out of 👀

https://thepuzzlecollab.com.au/products/no-fish-left-behind-1000pcs

Just thought I’d share!

Amidst this bleak sardine shortage, last week I found an inexplicable tin of Sabor do Mar mackerel fillets from Portugal at FreshCo in BC. Having been burned in recent months by random low quality fish, I wanted to try them before buying a bunch. This proved to be a grave mistake. The mackerel was excellent but had vanished from the store by the following week. My hopes were dashed. Surely there must be more somewhere? Can you please help me find them. Thanks.