What is it about pickles? They’re just some veggies in a brine, altered in flavor and texture while being preserved long past their natural lifespan. But the snap and lacto-fermented goodness of a real, honest-to-goodness pickle cannot be ignored, and Cultured Pickle Shop has our number. The store would also like us to think well beyond the classic American sour dill, or even snappy, sweet bread-and-butter pickles. At any time, customers can taste around a dozen types of sauerkraut (kale kraut is amazingly good!), a handful of kimchees, scads of seasonal pickles made with fruits and vegetables beyond cucumbers, as well as sake pickles and traditional Japanese rice bran pickles. They also brew several flavors of kombucha. Actually, it seems the Cultured Pickle Shop is willing to try pickling anything at least once, as long as it’s grown locally and organically. On that last point they become remarkably rigid.
