Alex Darus | For The Post

While some associate fest season with binge drinking and Fetty Wap, Bagel Street Deli associates the season with a prize-winning pickle eating contest.

“First of all, if you have a big mouth and you like pickles, then hey, Pickle Fest is for you,” Kara Vetere, a senior studying child and family studies, said.

The 17th annual Pickle Fest will take place Friday at 4 p.m. The rules are straightforward — the participant who eats the most full-size deli dill pickles in 10 minutes wins.

The prize includes a T-shirt and the opportunity to create a personalized bagel sandwich that will be on the Bagel Street Deli menu forever, Lenny Meyer, the owner of Bagel Street Deli at 27 S. Court St., said.

The idea of getting to create a customized  “bagelwich” to be put on the Bagel Street Deli board is “a pretty big deal,” Meyer said.

Jacob Pratt, who won the event last year by eating nine pickles, said the method for eating pickles is to eat them like corn on the cob at first and then eat the center like a hot dog.

“The hardest part was watching other people not eat pickles while I was eating them,” Pratt, a junior studying special education at the University of Cincinnati, said. “I realized how gross it was.”

Pickle Fest is loud and cramped, but Pratt said the environment is just awesome and suggested everyone participate in it.

“It’s definitely interesting,” Meyer said. “It’s high energy and it gets a lot of hype and excitement from people who are actually doing it.”

The previous owners began Pickle Fest, and Meyer has continued the tradition since obtaining Bagel Street Deli 13-years-ago. He said over time, the number of people who have competed in the event has kept “creeping upward.”

“There wasn’t any particular (reason) it started besides entertainment,” Meyer said.

When Vetere first saw the pickle she was supposed to eat quickly, she said she was astounded at the size and didn’t understand how she was supposed to be able to fit the whole thing in her mouth.

Participants of the event are asked to make a $5 donation to charity, and Bagel Street Deli will match any donation made. Every year the charity changes, but this year the money will go toward the Kyra Kurt Willner Global Travel Scholarship to honor the visual communication student and previous Bagel Street Deli worker who died in a car crash in December, Meyer said.

“The draw of the event is that it’s for charity,” Pratt said. “Even if you don’t think you’ll win, it’s all for charity in the end and it’s an awesome (cause).”

Because there is usually a big crowd, the competition is broken up into rounds with usually 12 people participating per round until everyone has taken a turn at eating the most pickles they possibly can, Meyer said.

Since Bagel Street Deli is small and has a “laid-back” atmosphere, Vetere said, it makes the participant feel very relaxed about having to eat a bunch of pickles in a competition.

“Whether you like pickles or don’t like pickles, it’s a fun experience to do … while you’re here in Athens,” Vetere said. “Where else are you going to (experience) a pickle eating contest?”

The all-time record for the most pickles eaten at Pickle Fest is 13. The recird is held by both Ben Kuhl and Mike Logue, who are both three-time champions of Pickle Fest, Meyer said.

“It’s a pretty funny event,” Meyer said. “It also can border on the absurd as well, and sort of (disgusting) at the same time.”

@_alexdarus

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PASHU PALAN MELA   –   The Tribune

Say sans processing units, they fail to export produce

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 18

Farmers are thinking out of the box and coming up with various dairy and meat-based products, but marketing remains a major challenge before them.In the absence of processing units, these farmers sometimes fail to export their products. Farmers who had come to display their products during the Pashu Palan mela by Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University share that marketing was a major hurdle coming in their way.Doraha-based Sukhwinder Singh, president of Piggery Farm Association who has come up with his brand “Can Meat” said his brand sells chicken pickle, mutton pickle and pork pickle and has recently launched ready-to-eat non-veg snacks such as nuggets, seekh kebab and meat balls.“The shelf life of these pickles is 3 months and no preservatives have been used in it,” Sukhwinder said.“Marketing of products is a major issue before us. The university has helped us technologically, but we lag behind when it comes to marketing. The government should provide some incentives and launch some scheme for small producers so that they can market their products easily,” he said.He said more than 50 per cent of his clientage comprises NRIs, who pick their stuff or ask someone coming to their country to get these pickles. “The demand for ready-to-eat food is there, but when it comes to pickle, especially pork, people here are a little reluctant,” he said.Sukhwinder recently went to Germany, Italy and other countries and says there was a huge scope for these products, but sadly he was unable to export as he lacks proper processing unit.“Importers from other countries ask for proper processing units before placing orders so it becomes a major hurdle for us in grabbing the overseas orders,” he said.Diary farmer Resham Singh, who has recently launched processed milk, curd, butter, lassi and kheer, said marketing was a major issue faced by him. “My products are popular in the nearby areas, but I want to expand my business and grow my business on a larger scale. Marketing of product is a major problem I face at present,” he said.

By Philip Susser   –   The Cornell Daily Sun

On an unseasonably warm Wednesday morning, some friends and I sat on Collegetown Bagels’ patio, in true senior fashion, as I waited for a California Sunrise to be delivered to our table — the perfect start to, what was expected to be, a carefree and lazy weekday. As a senior, opportunities to engage in such free-spirited disregard of the humdrum, cyclical five-day week and two-day weekend are surely numbered. My friends were getting antsy, as I was the last to order in our group, and they had long finished their Zabs’ and assorted egg sandwiches. With relatively poor vision — and having forgotten my glasses at home — I avoided “people-watching,” the norm during such highly trafficked hours. Instead, I opted to fully engage with my table — an increasingly anxious and tense situation emerged as the CTB employees repeatedly scurried across the outdoor seating with everything but my guacamole infused meal. One by one, these so-called “friends” of mine unabashedly brought their compost-compatible plates to the garbage, hinting at an impending return to our Cook Street home. My Cali-Sunrise was nowhere to be seen. But, at the very moment I began to lose all hope of attaining any semblance of satiety that morning, and flirting with the idea of a quick trip to 7-11, I noticed something familiar, yet peculiar. A complementary vegetal treat, resting on a friend’s plate. Knowing this would contribute to the 30 to 40 percent of the total food supply that goes wasted in the U.S., I spoke up — “are you going to eat that pickle?”

While pickles have been around for thousands of years (the first recorded pickle was linked to Ancient Mesopotamia in 2400 B.C.) and have cultural implications elsewhere (in Fiji, pickles are a part of the courting process), they have a strong New York identity. Many are aware of the scores of fresh-faced immigrants in lower Manhattan, with unapologetically heavy Eastern-European accents, who made a living off such mobile and easily produced foodstuff. Poor tenement dwellers enjoyed the fresh taste of the pickle and, as is often the case with food and smell, the pickles were strong nostalgic devices, bringing them back, so to speak, to their home countries. The Pushcarts and various pickle institutions began to dwindle over the years. Gus’s Pickles, arguably the most esteemed storefront of them all, closed up their Lower East Side shop in 2002, and are now producing pickles at a much larger scale in a Bronx factory.

That is not to say that pickles do not still remain a widely appreciated treat. They are still very “New York.” The intensity of the sourness, the bruised bumpy exterior, the audible crunch — all in line with the grit and ferocity of the city that never sleeps. United Pickles, the aforementioned New York producer put it best: “Mention pickles in a conversation and talk naturally turns to New York City.” Stephen Leibowitz, the owner of United Pickles now finds himself in a niche market, wholly unique from the dime-a-dozen pickle businesses at the turn of the 20th century. He is the kind of guy who likely comes prepared to interviews with an arsenal of corny pickle jokes ready to go. “If you’re in a pickle, call United Pickle,” he says. It sounds like a late-night infomercial, but it’s got a ring to it. In case you were wondering, the origins of the idiom “in a pickle” are murky, yet some have attributed the phrase to Shakespeare.

Few foods in today’s day-in-age come with as much personality as the pickle. They are elusive and slippery, funny and phallic. Even just saying the word pickle is funny. Heavily processed food with ambiguous origins provides a sense of unease for the end-user. Where did this meat come from? Is this really chicken, or does it just taste like it? I can’t believe it’s not butter! But the pickle, particularly from factories such as United Pickle, provides a sense of authenticity and nostalgia, a taste of older and simpler times. Sure, there was rampant poverty, living conditions that make College Ave look like Park Ave and polio — but way back when, for just a nickel, you could walk up to a guy in the street and buy the best damned pickle in the country.

Much of the history of the pickle has been passed down generations, with little formal recording of the nature of its cultural relevance — quite different than the mountain of information that comes with the study of wines. And as I currently sit to prepare for a Wines midterm, I can’t help but reflect upon the interconnected nature of food and culture. Even something as seemingly mundane and ridiculous as a pickle can be studied and appreciated for its place in history. To put it even more broadly, oftentimes, the most interesting stories are those that aren’t always being told. A cognizance and proclivity of such overlooked information will be quirky, but it will also certainly not be trite.

By Betty Nelander   –   Palm Beach Daily News

Daily News Staff Writer

A dilly of an event is planned for Sunday that will have participants puckering up.

That’s when the Pickle Factory, a kosher pickle-making workshop, will take place at 3 p.m. at Chabad of South Palm Beach, 224 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan.

Rabbi Pickle, also known asMendy Margolin, hails from pickle country — Brooklyn — and has a knack for preparing the sour, green and delicious cuke, according to the Chabad.

People will learn the history and art of pickle making, gain an understanding of the true meaning of kosher and leave the workshop with their own container of pickles, the temple says.

To date, Margolin has shared the joy and crunch of the Kosher pickle with more than 12,000 folks, young and old.

Tonight, meanwhile, the Chabad will host a Cuban-Jewish Shabbat featuring Richard and Madi Brener, who will share their first-hand Cuban Jewish experience. Dinner will feature Cuban food and history.

Call 351-1633 or email office@chabadspb.org to reserve.

BY NICHOLAS SAKELARIS   –   Star-Telegram

Special to the News-Mirror

There will be Elvis impersonators doing stunts on mini bikes, the Pickle Queens, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and an Elvis tribute concert with Kraig Parker.