Good Tuesday morning.
I have long been a big fan of pickles. I know they’re sort of a love ’em or hate ’em food. But if you grow up eating a lot of kosher deli, you sort of have pickles in your blood.
My favorite are full or half sours. I wouldn’t reject a sweet pickle, mind you – gherkins/cornichons, in particular, have their place on a nice cheese board or paired with some pate. I also like sweet pickle relish in my tuna and chicken salads, and on hot dogs, natch.
But given a choice of pickles, I would generally go sour over sweet. And while I’m pretty much willing to eat whatever sort of sour pickle comes my way, my favorites are sadly no longer available. They were made by my maternal grandmother, who passed away a number of years ago.
My grandmother, for whom (like all good Jewish bubbies), food equaled love, was more or less convinced that because we lived upstate – a solid two-hour drive from Brooklyn on a good day – we were basically starving. Every time she visited, she would schlep with her many bags and coolers full of food.
This drove my mother nuts, but I was thrilled to have the fridge jam-packed with all manner of delicacies that, to be honest, you really couldn’t find upstate at the time (this was the late 70s and early 80s). I’m talking about really good corned beef, for example, and potato and kasha knishes – best eaten hot with a side of grainy mustard.
Inevitably in this downstate food haul, there would be a recycled Postum jar filled with a cloudy, briny liquid in which as many fat full-sours as my grandmother could fit were crammed. I would eat these like apples. One after another. I’m surprised I didn’t give myself hypertension.
Pickles, I find, are having a moment. You can get them everywhere, it seems, and they’re all apparently handmade in someone’s basement. Lots of cultures do pickles – Japanese pickled veggies are a big favorite of mine; dikon radish, in particular, is delicious – because pickling is a long-standing traditional method of preserving food in the absence of refrigeration.
The practice of pickling – preserving food in vinegar or brine, like my grandma preferred – dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. Christopher Columbus reportedly was a supporter (pickles don’t go bad, and so are great to have on board a long ship voyage to help prevent scurvy), and is credited with introducing them to the New World.
It is said that Americans consume 20 BILLION pickles a year, which means that the average individual eats about nine pounds annually, according to the Department of Agriculture. That is a LOT of cucumbers.
Pickling should not be confused with fermenting, which is also very popular these days, though I don’t want to burst your bubble, but fermented foods aren’t – contrary to what people might claim – actually sources of probiotics. They’re still good for your gut, though. (Examples of fermented foods, in case you’re curious, include tempeh, Kefir, plain yogurt, and certain aged cheeses).
Pickles CAN be fermented, if they’re made using the brine method. Quick pickles are not fermented.
A primer: Pickling involves soaking foods in an acidic liquid to make them taste sour. Fermented food tastes sour as a result of a chemical reaction between the sugar in the food and naturally present bacteria. Lacto-fermentation, specifically, is the result of the presence of lactobacillus and produces that signature tangy and sour taste you get in, say, kimchi.
Today, is National Pickle Day, which I heretofore had no idea even existed. In celebration, consider adding some pickle chips to your sandwich, or putting some pickled veggies in your dinnertime rice bowl or salad, or – better yet! – try pickle juice as a post-workout recovery drink. No joke. I’ve done it, and I can personally attest to the fact that it works wonders.
For my fellow insomniacs, you already know that there were snow and rain showers overnight. These are expected to clear in the morning, though skies will continue to be cloudy, with temperatures in the mid-40s.
In the headlines…
The Gaza Strip’s hospitals “must be protected,” President Joe Biden said as Israeli troops battled to seize control of what Israel says is a Hamas command complex that lies below the enclave’s main medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital.
Dozens of State Department employees have signed internal memos to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken expressing serious disagreement with the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.
An Israeli official tells The Washington Post that a deal with Hamas that would see the release of dozens of women and children held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip is nearing fruition, and could be announced within days.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday discussed a possible deal to free the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7., Gaza’s governance following the war, and death toll figures produced by Gaza officials in an interview on “Meet the Press.”
Congressional aides have taken a series of actions, almost all of them anonymously, to publicly urge members of Congress — their own bosses — to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The Department of Homeland Security has designated today’s March for Israel in Washington, D.C., as a “Level 1” security event, the highest rating of risk assessment.
A New York civil liberties group is suing Biden for allegedly failing in his duty under international and US laws to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
The Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) complaint on behalf of several Palestinian groups and individuals alleges that Israel’s actions, including “mass killings”, the targeting of civilian infrastructure and forced expulsions, amount to genocide.
United Nations offices around the world lowered their blue-and-white flags to half-staff in honor of more than 100 colleagues who have been killed in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas last month.
A Secret Service agent assigned to protect Biden’s eldest granddaughter, Naomi Biden Neal, opened fire late Sunday as several people were breaking into an unoccupied government vehicle, the agency’s spokesman said.
One of the agents opened fire, but no one was struck by the gunfire, the Secret Service said in a statement. The three people were seen fleeing in a red car, and the Secret Service said it put out a regional bulletin to Metropolitan Police to be on the lookout for it.
Washington has seen a steep rise in carjackings, with more than 860 reported offenses so far this year, according to the capital city’s police, more than double the number during the same period last year.
Political statistician Nate Silver became the latest strategist to voice their skepticism with Biden’s ability to run for reelection in 2024.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week ran into increasing opposition from hard-line Republicans. But with Democratic opposition softening, it appeared the plan could be headed toward bipartisan approval.
House Republican leaders are moving to pass a two-step stopgap government funding bill under a fast-track process that will require support from Democrats, an attempt to work around GOP opposition that threatened to tank the bill on a procedural vote.
A small group of Republicans joined Democrats in voting to defeat a motion by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to immediately impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Paul Pelosi immediately knew he was “in serious danger” when he woke up to a large, unknown man standing in his bedroom carrying a hammer and zip ties, he testified in San Francisco Federal Court.
“He was standing in the doorway and I assume he was three, four feet away from me,” Pelosi said at the trial of David DePape, who stands accused of assaulting him.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump planned to refuse to leave the White House “under any circumstances” despite losing, a longtime Trump aide told one of the lawyers who is cooperating with prosecutors in Atlanta.
Federal prosecutors accused Trump of trying to turn his trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election into “a media event” with a “carnival atmosphere” by backing calls to have it broadcast live on television.
Donald Trump Jr. extolled the virtues of the Trump Organization’s “sexy” real estate portfolio on the witness stand in response to softball questions from the defense team, in a spiel more akin to a sales pitch than fraud trial testimony.
Trump Jr. returned to court as something of a character witness for his father’s real estate empire, waxing exuberantly about the former president’s “incredible vision” and portfolio of “great, iconic projects”.
Maryanne Trump Barry, the ex-president’s sister and a retired federal judge, was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on Monday. She was 86.
The Supreme Court adopted its first code of ethics, in the face of sustained criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices, but the code lacks a means of enforcement.
The policy, agreed to by all nine justices, does not appear to impose any significant new requirements and leaves compliance entirely to each justice.
Responding to a swell in antisemitic hate crimes, New York State will deploy more state cops to the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force’s offices in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
The governor said an additional $2.5 million will be allocated for at least 10 State Police investigators to work with the task force. That will likely lead to seven more investigators in New York City and at least one more each in Albany, Buffalo and Rochester.
Hate crime and terrorism investigations have increased “exponentially” since Hamas’ attack on Israel, a high-ranking state police official said alongside Hochul.
“We have determined that the rising level of hate and antisemitism in particular, poses a clear and present danger to the safety and wellbeing of all New Yorkers,” Hochul said. “As governor, am doing everything in my power to fight back.”
Organizations that represent special interest groups including aging populations, labor groups and communities of color are urging Hochul to sign a bill that would require drugmakers to disclose significant increases in prescription drug pricing.
Hochul, who had pursued the idea of issuing state-approved work papers to migrants, took the plan off the table yesterday, saying she would not have been able to protect New York employers from criminal exposure under federal laws.
A commission recommended New York scale back required standardized testing to earn a high school diploma, reducing the importance of the Regents exam in a move that would be one of the most sweeping changes to state graduation policy in decades.
The Adams administration, looking to free up space in the city’s beleaguered shelter system, began sending notices yesterday to single adult migrants in Department of Homeless Services accommodations directing them to leave within 30 days.
Adams showed off two huge drone-like choppers that he hailed as the future, as he announced plans to revamp the Big Apple’s main heliport so it can start ferrying New Yorkers on electric flights.
Staten Island elected officials blasted the Adams administration’s decision to cancel a new class of 250 school safety agents, complaining that the massive spending on the migrant crisis is now undermining services to the city’s citizenry.
Another busload of migrant families arrived at the Big Apple’s controversial makeshift tent city at Floyd Bennett Field yesterday – a day after dozens of asylum seekers were bused there but refused to stay.
Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition condemning next week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a “non-binary and transgender extravaganza” over the inclusion of two gender non-conforming performers in the lineup.
A basement blaze that tore through a Brooklyn brownstone, killing three generations of a beloved family, was caused by a lithium ion battery, fire officials said.
New York City’s fire commissioner stood outside the shell of a home where scooter batteries burst into flames on Sunday, killing three people, and blamed big corporations for contributing to a rising death toll from the power supplies for electric vehicles.
Amtrak service between New York City and Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County remained suspended yesterday afternoon after officials said a parking garage in Midtown Manhattan had structural issues that potentially endangered tracks below it.
The U.S. Coast Guard pulled back on a regulatory change that would have allowed barges to anchor on the Hudson River north of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge after criticism from environmental groups, Hudson Valley officials and the public.
A five-mile-long water service line extension was officially launched by Rensselaer County and the town of Schodack with officials calling it a key to providing the infrastructure to spur development along Route 9.
A investigation found newly re-elected Albany County Family Court Judge Susan Kushner made a “racially offensive” remark last year about an Hispanic-American attorney, tried to interfere with potential witness statements and badmouthed court officers.
S&P Global Ratings upgraded the City of Troy’s bond rating one level last week to an A+ grade with an outlook of stable from the previous rating of A.
A former caregiver at Albany Medical Center Hospital charged with stealing a ring off a sleeping 75-year-old patient in the emergency room last summer tearfully rejected a plea bargain that would have required she serve up to three years in prison.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
