Picklers Are Entering Phase Of Intense Experimentation

Some people think of biting into a pickle as a way to taste tradition, but the experience doesn't always leave the most familiar taste in the mouth.

The pickle industry has been moving away from the historical and into hypothetical ground. In an attempt to rev up sales and appeal to gourmands, it has been downplaying its warty green cucumbers and promoting pretty much anything that fits inside a jar. The old-fashioned sour and dill pickles have been moved to the bottom of the barrel in favor of newfangled things like pickled curried green tomatoes and pickled lime wedges.

"There's a lot of groovy pickles now," the director of yesterday's fifth annual New York City International Pickle Day, Nancy Ralph, said. People greeted one another with bright cries of "Happy pickle day!" before spearing samples into their mouths.

Among the foods on offer were pickled celery, lemons, limes, mangoes, roasted red peppers, plum tomatoes, salted plums, beets, and the "banana pickle" - a cucumber that has been cured in a yellow liquid and sliced to look like a very small banana.

"People have started taking an interest in food that goes straight from the farm to the table," Ms. Ralph, who is also the director of the NY Food Museum, said of the recent rise in experimental pickles.

Long before precious cupcake shops and Moby came to the Lower East Side, the streets were packed with pickle stores. Tim Baker, owner of Gus's Pickles, the oldest pickle store in the city and the most popular booth yesterday, misses the days when people used to buy pickles by the gallon. To drum up business, his store has raised the number of pickled goods it carries. In the late '70s, when Mr. Baker started working at the concern, there were eight products; now there are 45, including pickled okra and string beans.

"There's an interest in things to do at home, things that evoke a sense of nostalgia and remind people of a simple way of life," said Rick Field, owner of Rick's Picks, the most experimental company on the pickle scene. He sells pickled curry green tomatoes and soy wasabi flavored green beans. (Oprah has declared herself a fan.)

Pickles date back to ancient Mesopotamia, when people started curing cucumbers in brine. These days, they are generally associated with Eastern Europe, but the practice of preserving vegetables has flourished across the globe. "We eat pickles from breakfast to supper," said Ki Soo Shin Hepinstall, author of the cookbook, "Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen." "If you go to a pizza or hamburger restaurant in Korea, you eat it with pickles," she said.

A pickle enthusiast at the festival, who would only give her first name as Shivani, said she and her best friend sit around watching television and eating pickles. She said she likes the crunch and the powerful taste of a dill pickle, but there's another consideration besides taste: "You can eat a lot and not get fat."