Better than Vita

CALL US NUTS, BUT ON THE COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR, WE GASSED UP THE RECHARGERMOBILE AND DROVE OUT TO GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN, recently chosen by Frommer’s travel guide as the 2nd most desolate place on earth. Aim? To investigate the Acme Smoked Fish company. Partial to lox and smoked whitefish since we were pups, this was a must-do. Acme retail Fridays — the public can buy smoked fish only on Fridays from 9 – 1 pm — is a no-frills affair. We strode through a loading area, through a plastic curtain, emerging in a cold room with the fish — packaged and au natural– on display. Not only did we buy a smoked whitefish and our favorite bagel spread, whitefish salad, we also got a hunka burning lox and, to our delight, a $4 jar of creamed herring that would have caused cardia arrest in a Jewish pasha. To our further delight, the herring surpassed the immortal Vita product in taste, texture, and, of course, chutzpah.

Below is a recipe from the Acme website:

ASIAN-STYLE SMOKED TROUT AND CUCUMBER BITES

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sugar
4 ounces Blue Hill Bay smoked trout fillets, chopped fine
3 tablespoons minced scallion/green onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, plus leaves for garnish
1 teaspoon minced peeled gingerroot
1 long seedless cucumber, cut into ½-inch slices
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Whisk the lime juice, oil, and sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the trout, scallion, cilantro, ginger and pepper to taste and combine well.

Top each cucumber slice with a rounded teaspoon of trout salad, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and garnish with a cilantro leaf.

Makes 16 to 18 hors d’oeuvres.