NOLA Blogger Meet Up

If there are any other NOLA based bloggers that read Pickle Freak, please join us TOMORROW, Thursday, June 30th from 6-8 pm.
The meet up is free to all and we'll be learning about Word Press and discussing anything that comes to mind.

It will all take place at Launch Pad, where I happen to work. I didn't plan this event it just happened this way-isn't my life magical?

More info and RSVP on Facebook.

There's a bar just next door so afterwards we can all have a beverage at Capdeville!

This picture is symbolic of different kinds of veggies being united as pickles, just as we bloggers will be united.

Empty Crack Vial

You Know You Want It!

I Bought Crack in the French Quarter

You already know I have a problem... a bit of a habit...but what am I supposed to do when the pickle pushers just FIND ME?

I'm learning fast that in THIS town, temptation is every.where.you.look....and even where you don't look. I knowingly ventured to the 25th Annual Creole Tomato Festival in the French Market a few Sundays ago with the agenda to buy a few pickled things, pickled Mirlitons being high on the list. A bus ride downtown, a fresh lime daiquiri and $10 bucks later, Mission Accomplished: pickles in hand.



But these were just gateway pickles. The hard stuff would find me a few bars later. My friends and I ventured from bar to bar-Pravda (no AC!), The Abbey, and then Johnny White's....a den of crack. All I did was sit there and from the farthest corner of the small, narrow bar I saw a vision of a woman standing outside in the light holding what I wanted. A flat box- a case of Ball mason jars-I would recognize those colors and that font anywhere-full of jars and....a go cup with a Hurricane from Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar. Could it be? Is she really selling pickles? Right outside the very bar I'm in when there are HUNDREDS of bars to choose from? How did she know?

I marched towards the door (possibly staggered) and barraged her with questions, "Are you selling pickles? What is your name? I have to have a jar! How much are these? OhmygodIwriteablogaboutpicklesandIcan'tbelievethis?"

HOW MUCH for a JAR?



I gave her $5 dollars and pawed a jar and she gently took my hand and said "No, take these. You have to try the CRACK PICKLES." Oh I took the crack pickles alright and I ate them almost immediately. They were spears with a clear, simple taste of brine and mustard seed. They tasted like warm sunshine on a blanket. I managed to share a few but I clearly hogged the majority of the jar and then at my final bar of the night, I polished off the remaining pickle juice.




All I've got now is an empty jar with a handwritten label and a strong urge to eat more crack pickles! I didn't catch this seemingly mirage of a woman's name but she did tell me her farm, Lone Cypress Farm has a facebook page and from there I learned that their main mission is rescuing stray animals-they use to farm to grow produce and use the sale of their harvest to support their rescue. Crack with a Cause!!

She assured me I could find her again another Sunday night, same place-ish, same time-ish (this IS New Orleans after all) and I sure hope I do. You can order your own crack online and I urge you to do so. Don't make me do crack all alone.

American Sector-Pickles @ the WWII Museum

I was a little obsessed with these pickles before I even moved here from reading about them on my fave NOLA food blog Blackened Out. But now that I'm HERE, I'm TRULY in love with these green spears of patriotism.

Chef John Besh runs the restaurant American Sector which is part of the museum but admission is not required. The pickles are free but I've noticed on my repeat visits they aren't automatically brought to your table, so don't be shy and ask for them as soon as you're handed your menu! They are very tangy pickles with an initial heavy bread and butter taste but I've noticed that with every bite I pick up a different subtle taste which keeps me happily munching away. Also, they change slightly in flavor every time I've visited, which tells me that are made fresh on a very regular basis.

The menu is great and I try and order something different every time I visit, but my favorite dish (besides the amazing corndog) is the garlic honey glazed chicken wings because they come with a trio of pickled veggies. Pickled squash, watermelon and radish is pictured below. The radish was underwhelming (but I'm not really a fan), the squash was delicious (I'm not usually a fan) but the watermelon was magical. It was still very sweet but had a spice and tang to it that I loved. I ordered the wings and had no idea they would come with so many pickles on the side-perfect!


I'm lucky that I have a job just down the street and a friend that works at the Museum, so it's a quick and luxurious lunch spot for me. Everything I've had is amazing right down to the hotdog. But what's really special about this place is that every trip I've made there has had an emotional impact on me. To be seated next to a WWII Veteran who gently cuts his wife's food for her or to snap a photo of a Veteran and his wife at the next table for them to remember their trip here makes me feel so grateful. So if you see me a little teary-eyed at American Sector it could be the pickles, or the corndog or the spicy wings, but it's not.


Thanks to everyone who has served and a big salute to those serving now.

Homemade-esque?

Vlasic Pickles is launching a new pickle and as I was trying to sort through my ANGER at this campaign ( I usually welcome ANY new pickles on the scene...) I found THIS article on Gothamist.com with my exact thoughts and emotions expressed perfectly by the very articulate Bob McClure of McClure's Pickles.

Here's a snippet from their obnoxious press release ( I was invited to the "farm-to-table STYLE tasting event but I don't think I'll be flying back to NYC to attend):

You may be asking yourself, “what’s the big deal about a pickle?” Consider this the “pickle for everyday foodies” that answers the call for people who want to eat fresh and choose quality, but don’t want to drive across town to the specialty market or wait for the Saturday farmer’s markets to do so.

1-What's the big deal about a pickle? Well that question just pisses me off.
2-"Consider this the "pickle for everyday foodies"...but don't want to drive across town to the specialty market-So you mean it's the pickle for foodies who don't really give a shit and are too lazy to drive? THOSE FOODIES?
3-"...or wait for the Saturday farmer's markets..." or so either the lazy ones who don't want to drive or the impatient ones who can't wait, THOSE FOODIES...

Maybe by putting "everyday" in front of "foodies" just means assholes.

See? I'm really upset by this. Why can't they just come out and say, with all these fantastic people making awesome pickles we thought we'd better get our shit together and make a product that you're gonna demand from us anyway or else we'll go out of business eventually. OR they could come out and say "we're seeing young, creative, passionate people creating a market that we can dip into, so, hey, we ARE!"

And what really makes me the maddest is... I still wanna know what they taste like.

Frog Ranch Peppered Pickles

WOW-I can't believe I haven't told y'all about Frog Ranch Peppered Pickles yet... I am really slacking. These pickles are long gone from my fridge now because they were sent to me back in January by my friend Aggie. She lives in OHIO..or as she likes to call it, the LAND OF BLAND... but then she found these pickles and now she's not sure what to think!

Pickles can really make you rethink your whole life.

These pickles are sliced into thick chunks and the entire bottom third of the jar is sliced jalapenos. They are some of the HOTTEST store bought pickles I've ever encountered that simply said "hot" and not EXTRA or XX Hot. Way to go. I wish all things labeled "hot" were really this hot. You can tell from this half-assed photo of the jar in my fridge that I had already eaten past the point where there is no longer pickle juice near the top of the label and I ate them so quickly I never even bothered to snap a pic of them on the end of a fork. So you'll just have to use your non-bland imagination to picture a thick, chunky pickle slice in your brain.

I encourage you to support Ohio's effort to end blandness and order yourself a jar soon!