In London, they decided that ordinary gastronomic festivals are no longer enough.
On 12–13 September, at Hackney Bridge there took place The Big Brine — a grand celebration of everything that can be salted, marinated, fermented and left in a jar for better times.
And if you think this is only about cucumbers, then you are underestimating the scale.
The festival featured pickles, kimchi, fermented vegetables, sauces, strange combinations and products that an ordinary person first looks at with the question:
— Is this really meant to be eaten?
And a minute later:
— Where can I buy a jar?
The main idea of the festival is to show that pickles long ago outgrew the format:
"Grandma put some up for the winter."
Now it is gastronomy, culture, experimentation and almost philosophy.
You could walk between the stalls, try dozens of varieties, listen to chefs and discuss very serious questions:
— Is this cucumber crunchy enough?
— And is this kimchi ready yet, or does it need to think about life a little longer?
What was especially lovely was that all of this was accompanied by live music and DJ sets.
That is, somewhere people were dancing with a glass in hand.
And here there could quite easily have been a person with a jar of pickled cabbage.
And happy too.
At the festival there were producers with names like Sexy Pickles and Reckless Pickle, which in itself sounds as though pickles have finally stepped out of the shadows and begun to live life to the full.
There were fermentation master classes, tastings and the chance to learn how an ordinary vegetable travels the path from:
“lying there quietly”
to:
“becoming a gastronomic event”.
All in all, London has once again proved:
if you gather enough people around one strange idea, put on some music and add food — you get a festival.
Even if that idea is
brine. 😄
And perhaps the best slogan for The Big Brine would be:
“If life gives you a cucumber — put it in a jar.”
