By Gabby Shacknai

amNewYork

The Lower East Side’s annual Pickle Day returns Oct. 14 on Orchard Street. Photo Credit: Lower East Side Partnership

There are few things as emblematic of New York City as a signature yellow cab or a slice of pizza; but to those on the Lower East Side, there exists nothing of greater pride than the pickle.
The pickle invokes a universal memory of a bygone era for generations of New Yorkers, and the crunchy snack is actually older than the city itself. A non-refrigerated alternative to vegetables in the barren winter months, the New York pickle harks back to the earliest settlers, when the Dutch and later the English brought them from Europe.
During the early 19th century, mass immigration brought on a boom in pickle production, and non-English speaking Polish, German, and Jewish immigrants began selling their pickles to customers on the street using pushcarts. The first peddlers appeared on the Lower East Side in the 1860s, and by 1900, there were about 3,000 pickle vendors throughout the city.Orchard and Essex Streets soon stank of dill and garlic, spilling into walls and tenement buildings in the area, and a citywide fight against the pickle began. By 1940, New York City had banned all street commerce, forcing many picklers to close shop, and only a handful are still around today.

Bringing the pickle to the 21st century
The Lower East Side Partnership’s Pickle Day, which will mark its 19th year on Oct. 14, is “a literal slice of history.”
Although the Tenement Museum takes on the task of retelling the neighborhood’s history year-round, Pickle Day truly brings it to life. The partnership recreates the “bargain district,” pushcarts and all, and features more than 50 local restaurants and vendors, including a few who helped put the area on the pickle map centuries earlier.“Pickle Day really seeks to bring back that community feel,” says Laura Carlson, the design and community development director for the Lower East Side Partnership. But the event welcomes far more attendees than the picklers of yesteryear ever saw, with an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people between Delancey and Houston streets throughout the course of the day.
And while a love of pickles is certainly appreciated, it’s far from necessary. Pickle Day also offers foods like pizza, paninis and ice cream to those who aren’t gung-ho for gherkins, or even for those who need a short break from the salty snack.
The community-oriented event prides itself on having something for all ages, with live DJs, a face-painter, dozens of games (including a pickle toss), balloon animals, and even a life-size, talking pickle on offer. Pickle Day attracts the very youngest of attendees to the very oldest, and four-legged canine friends also are welcome.

Picking the Best Pickles
One of Pickle Day’s shining moments is its annual pickling contest.
With more than 170 submissions just this year, the contest welcomes traditional pickled cucumbers as well as other pickled items — notable entries from previous years include pickled grapes and pickled watermelon. The pickling contest sees submissions from all over the world and this year, will feature a pickled item all the way from Japan.In the past, the contest’s winner has been decided by a panel of expert judges, but this year, the first round of judging will be open to the public. The food industry expert panel will then make the final verdict at 3:30 p.m.

The Pickle Guy(s)
For Al Kaufman, owner of local favorite and Pickle Day star vendor, The Pickle Guys, it’s all about upholding tradition. The pickle aficionado, who worked at Gus’s Pickles before opening his own shop, likes to think of the business as “a living museum.”
The Essex Street shop brings several barrels of its famous pickles to Pickle Day and gives its product away for free. “It’s about paying homage to pickles,” says Kaufman, “and we enjoy doing it.”
And the giveaways seem to pay off. “Pickle Day is always one of our busiest days in the shop because of all the new customers,” the owner explains, noting that many try one pickle at the event and walk to the Pickle Guys store, just four blocks away, to buy a jar or two to take home.
“We make things the right way,” Kaufman says, with reference to the lengthy process his shop goes through to get the perfect pickle. (Sour pickles take about three months to make, while half sour take roughly two weeks.)
Even the smell of dill and garlic that once haunted the Lower East Side has found a loving home at The Pickle Guys. “At least a hundred times a day, I hear people say, ‘wow, that smells like heaven’ when they come into the shop,” Kaufman says with a smile. The pickle vendor, which started with just five barrels of only the classics and has since added 35 more barrels to its regular lineup, some featuring pickled Brussels sprouts, mangoes and pineapple, has participated in Pickle Day every year since it began.
“It’s a really positive thing,” says Kaufman. “It has nothing to do with politics, or race, or anything controversial. It’s just a nice event that celebrates pickles.”
To join in on the pickling good time, head to Orchard Street between Houston and Delancey on Oct 14 from noon to 5 p.m.

By : Holly Owens

Herald and News 

Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles will bring vintage jazz and swing to the Ross Ragland Theater on Friday, Oct. 12.

Submitted photo

Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles Jazz Band is a Denver-based vintage jazz band intent on bringing swing back to a new generation. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, the Pickles will take to the Ragland stage with a high energy authentic big band sound and look that celebrates the unique American spirit of swing.
Long before jazz became a spectator event, it was dance music. The big bands that played swing made their reputations on being able to flood the floor with dancers. Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles are on a mission to bring back those days. Formed in Denver in 2013, and led by trumpeter Joe Smith, the band has been focusing on dance oriented swing since their 2015 release, “High Fidelity.” Now expanded into a septet plus a vocalist, they hope to revive the music that got America swinging.

Power, personality, wit
Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles does a magnificent job of replicating not only the music, but the general atmosphere of the era as well. This is music that takes skill and dedication to perform correctly, as the high standard was set by the originators. The Spicy Pickles are recognized for their sensational live performances. This small group-style swing band packs a punch of power, personality and wit into each show with the beloved charm of big band swing from the late ‘30s and early ‘40s.

“You’re not going to want to miss Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles,” said Michael B. Miles, associate director of the Ross Ragland. “Their music will make you want to get up and swing.”

tickets for the event are $15, $19 and $24 before transaction fees. Student, senior, military and low-income discounts are available.
The Ross Ragland Theater is at 218 N. Seventh St. Call 541-884-5483 for ticket information and reservations, or visit the theater’s website at www.rrtheater.org. The box office is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and two hours prior to show time the day of any weekend show.

By Alexis Nedd

Mashable

musical number starring something called “The Pickle Nickel Choir.

Image: Erica Parise/SHOWTIME

There used to be a tier of celebrity that seemed unimpeachable. They were the icons, the people whose front-facing personas dovetailed so nicely with public opinion that everyone felt like they existed in a world apart from regular humans and loved them for it.

In the current era of social media and paparazzi surveillance, it’s hard for anyone to maintain that level of fame. People now know too much about celebrities to hold them on a pedestal, and in the 24-hour entertainment news cycle it sometimes feels like the world is just waiting for them to crack.
Kidding is about what happens when they do.

In Kidding, long-lost superstar Jim Carrey plays Jeff Pickles, a Mr. Rogers–type personality whose musical children’s television show is universally popular. So popular, in fact, that when Jeff’s car is stolen, the thieves frantically return and restore the vehicle once they see his name on the registration. Mr. Pickles is a true icon, one of those characters as beloved as Betty White and as unchanging as Big Bird.

Mr. Pickles is also a man in crisis. One year before the events of Kidding, one of his twin sons died in a car accident, leaving a wound in the center of his family. In the time between the accident and the show, Jeff’s wife separated from him, his living son turned against him, he moved from his family home to a dingy apartment, and his grieving process…well, it never really existed.

What follows in the first two episodes of Kidding, which are streaming on Showtime, is a darkly funny portrait about what happens when the world’s most famously cheery and empathetic man doesn’t have an outlet for his valid negative emotions. After introducing Jeff as a kind but somewhat ineffective character (his own son calls him a pussy, and the kid’s not wrong), Kidding then begins to expose the hairline cracks in his psyche — smash cuts to objects breaking imply that Jeff is unaware that he has begun lashing out in violent outbursts, and he demonstrates a terrifying lack of boundaries on multiple occasions.

Nothing good seems to lurk in Jeff Pickles’ future, and his descent into whatever madness awaits him is set to be the crux of the show.
Now is a good time to catch up on Kidding because the first two episodes do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of setting the plot in motion. Side stories about Jeff’s son Will pay off when the high school freshman finds his own, likely destructive way of dealing with his brother’s death. Jeff’s sister has a whole host of her own issues, from a daughter who exhibits signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to a husband who appears perfect and falls very short of his image.
Getting to know the characters and where they are in reaction to the accident is crucial in understanding the relationships that drive the show, and with half hour episodes watching the first two together is roughly the length of any single HBO dramedy. It’s better and clearer to take them as shot and chaser.
And of course, watching Kidding is a great excuse to see Jim Carrey again. Sure, he popped up in a few indie movies here and there, but he has largely retreated from the spotlight since his heyday in the 90s and early 00s. It’s easy to see what about Kidding drew Carrey back, even he hasn’t been on a TV show since In Living Color ended in 2001 — it’s the story of an icon who is forced to grapple with the worst parts of being a human.
There are elements of Jim Carrey in Jeff Pickles. He’s as rubber-faced and goofy as ever in some moments, but is also straight-backed and stiff with repressed emotion. The

weight of being Mr. Pickles feels physical on his exhausted-looking face, but he also delights in being able to be kind and change the lives of children. It’s an actor’s dream role, and one that could hardly be filled by someone who doesn’t already remind the audience of the character.

Kidding is filled with musical moments, sharp dialogue, and lovely character moments, but it most importantly contains a low-key type of emotional horror that can only get more present over the course of the season. Now’s the time to hop on the Mr. Pickles train and see where it lands Jeff and the rest of his family.

By:  Claire Lower

Skillet

Add pickle juice to flavor your vegetables

Photo: Sébastien Marchand (Unsplash)

Trendy faux-dive bars are all about the pickleback, but back in my day, I had to sneak sips of the salty brine because it was “weird” and “the pickles were starting to dry out.” But pickle juice is more than a cucumber-preserving liquid, and I’m glad the world is starting to appreciate its broader culinary uses.

I love a bit of pickle brine in a martini, but I have recently been splashing it into hot, sputtering pans of buttery vegetables with great success. Rather than tasting aggressive and sour, the vinegar reduces to a slightly sweeter form of itself while cutting through some of the butter’s richness. There’s also no need to raid your spice rack, as the seasonings within brine do all the work in that department. I particularly enjoy a garlicky Clausen brine with crispy, buttery baby shiitakes. The meatiness of the mushroom greatly benefits from the whisper of acid, and the pickling spices flavor without overwhelming. Add a tablespoon of brine just before you take your veggies off the heat, let it reduce for a mere minute or two, and serve as usual. (Other vegetables are good too, but try it with mushrooms first; you will not regret your choices.)

By: Melissa Locker

TIME

Yes, this is a dill pickle pizza. If you love pickles this is all you need!! Made garlic sauce and mozzarella cheese.

(Photo by): Rhino’s pizzeria and deli

A pizzeria has been “convicted” of committing misdemeanors against pizza by the internet
Their crime? Creating a pickle-topped pizza with a side of ranch dressing.
Rhino’s Pizzeria and Deli created a pizza pie that swapped garlic sauce for the traditional marinara, put sliced dill pickles in lieu of pepperoni, and covered the entire thing in mozzarella cheese, according to WHEC. They posted the picture on Facebook with the suggestion to “Try it with ranch for dipping.”

That was the final straw for some pizza lovers. After the pizza shop posted the pizza on Facebook heir Facebook post has been shared more than 41,000 times as of Thursday morning and despite 14,000 comments, people continue to weigh in on the controversial pizza. While most seem to consider the pickle-topped pizza a travesty, demanding answers, “Why?! In the name of all that is holy, why did you do this to pizza?!” wrote one Facebook commenter. Another brought up that equally controversial topping—pineapple—writing, “And people have the damn nerve to complain about pineapples on a pizza.” One amateur food critic noted, “Pineapple and pickles have no business on a pizza. Once you vary off cheese and pepperoni it’s not pizza anymore…” Another summed it up, tidily: “Pickles on pizza, hell no.”

A surprising number of people, some admittedly in the throes of pregnancy-related food cravings, thought the pickle-topped pizza sounded delectable, some hoping for a sweet-pickle version, and others plotting day trips to New York state for a pie. These are undoubtedly the same people who like marshmallow Peeps on pizza and consider strawberries a reasonable topping.