If you're in a somewhat sour mood, this is your week. That's right, it's International Pickle Week!
Were you aware that the cucumber was the first vegetable ever pickled? Or that Americans consume more than five million pounds of pickles annually? Or that Julius Caesar, Tiberius, King John, Queen Elizabeth I, Samuel Pepys, Amerigo Vespucci, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Napoleon Bonaparte all were pickle lovers? These and other interesting pickled tidbits come from the pages of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and The Pickle Guys.
Speaking of the Lower East Side, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, you may wish to visit Guss' Pickles
and The Pickle Guys.
Though plastic barrels have long since supplanted wooden ones, it's still possible to have a taste of Old New York that ranges from new to full-sour. Challenge yourself to a "brined tasting" to determine your favorite.
International Pickle Week
Guss' Pickles
85 Orchard Street (bet. Broome & Grand Sts), Lower East Side, Manhattan
(212) 334-3616
The Pickle Guys
49 Essex Street (bet. Grand & Hester Sts), Lower East Side, Manhattan
(212) 656-9739 or (888) 4-PICKLE
By train: F (IND) to Delancey St; J,M,Z (BMT) to Essex St
By bus: M9, M14A, M15
Comments