The outside of the shop and the sign. Artsy. My uncle gets photocredz.
I'm going to have to say this is the list of things they sell.
It was a hard decision.
Where they ferment stuff.
Also where they ferment stuff. This stuff is kombucha.
This is bacteria. But good bacteria.
The pickles we bought that tasted "distinct". They looked distinct too.
This is our dinner. It's colorful. Like fall.
This is the face that I make when I try to hide my reaction to the bitterness.
Me and Ted talking. This is probably after his coughing fit.
The next stop on our fermentation tour was Cultured Pickle Shop a couple blocks from Three Stone Hearth. The shop is owned by Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley. We met Alex Hozven, the artist behind the fermentation, and she took us on a quick tour of her shop. Because her shop is purely about pickling she makes far more than Three Stone Hearth. Everything is made my traditional fermentation methods dating back to ancient China. She knew a lot (which probably makes sense because it is her life). When my aunt asked her about a certain Japanese pickle Hozven told her that it had been created rather recently history-wise in Buddhist Monasteries because of some government introduction of Sake. (That could actually be completely wrong but it would be my memory not her answer.)
We ended up buying a bottle of beet kvass to try (meh. not my thing) and three different types of pickles. Much to my disappointment, they were definitely not my thing, which was upsetting because I was on such a role. In my defence, Kitty’s friend Ted had a coughing fit after having one and then called it “distinct”, I will now call everything that does not agree with my taste buds “distinct”.
This is an excerpt from the Cultured Pickle Shop website about pickles:
Within the American food lexicon, the pickle suffers from rigid and compartmentalized thinking. To many, the pickle is a sour cucumber, period. However, on any given day, one can visit the tasting area of The Cultured Pickle Shop and sample ten varieties of sauerkraut, four varieties of kimchi, fourteen different types of seasonal specialty pickles, eight different flavors of kombucha tea, two sake lees pickles, one rice bran pickle, and, of course, the ubiquitous Classic Dill. In the spirit of enlarging the collective culinary mind, Cultured challenges the narrow confines of America's pickle prejudices. Global pickling traditions of the past interact dynamically with the Northern California foodshed in our Berkeley shop.
If you are interested in the Cultured Pickle Shop their website and their blog are fascinating.
Here is a great video of Alex Hozven giving a tour of her shop, not unlike the one she gave us. Probably a little more detailed though.
Sandor Katz is one of the people that made fermentation popular across the states, he is a food activist who wrote Wild Fermentation about well...fermentation. If you want to know more about him or his book, his website of the same name is chalk full of fermentation facts. He also has a new book called The Art of Fermentation.
That night we had the bitterest meal I have ever eaten. Pickles, radishes, bok choy. It was delicious but whew, some of it was...distinct.
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