Insane in the brine: Heed the pickle's call
Two worthwhile events, one worthy curing process
Give Me The Pickle
It's time to actualize your love for pickles.
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Here at The A.V. Club, we love pickles. They are awesome. And though they’ve taken a rather bourgeois turn lately—head to the Greenmarket and buy an artisanal variety, or pick up an old copy of Edible Brooklyn and learn how to brine your own—that doesn’t make them any less delicious. They are pickles. They are great.
And just as summer turns to fall, and urban homesteaders prepare saltwater solutions and scour the supermarket for choad-like cucumbers, we bring word of two pickle-related events.
The first is International Pickle Day, taking place this Sunday, Oct. 4, at the New York Food Museum on the Lower East Side. Not everyone knows it, but the neighborhood used to be the city’s pickle district before it became the city’s asshole-nightlife district. (Guss’ Pickles, one of the last holdovers from those halcyon days, recently announced a move from Orchard Street to Borough Park, Brooklyn.) Think demonstrations, how-to sessions covering items like kimchi and pickled okra, and samples from pretty much all of the city’s finest purveyors. It’s one of those events where, if you try hard enough, you can probably skip a meal afterwards.
Maybe the streets are a little too dirty for your delicate sensibilities. Perhaps you recoil at the sight of Vlasic jars. Could be that you only eat Rick’s Picks pickled asparagus spears, or something similarly snooty. The point is, a second event at the Museum of Natural History might pique-el your interest. (Oh yes we did.) The Magic Of Pickling takes place on Oct. 13, and features discussions with Lucy Norris, who wrote the book on pickling (it’s called Pickled: Preserving A World Of Tastes And Traditions) and Rick McClure, of McClure’s Pickles in Brooklyn. The focus is on global pickling, and includes, ahem, many free samples.
With all those choices and tastes, you might find yourself in a pickle. Or something. Okay, enough.
