Ever find yourself in a bit of a pickle when it comes to ordering off a menu? Just go with it — pickles, you see, are totally trendy.

Pickles are being served at more than one-third of America’s eateries, up from around 13 percent in 2008, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

And folks are picking pickles at home, too. Trade group Pickle Packers International (no, we did not make that name up … but try saying it five times fast) says we plow through nine pounds of pickles each every year, reports NRN.

In restaurants, you’ll find everything from plain ol’ pickle appetizers to mason jars filled with house-cured pickles at places like the Village Whiskey in Philadelphia. There’s also an entire pickle tasting platter at Chicago’s Big Jones and a plethora of fried pickle starters.

“It’s so easy,” Paul Fehribach, chef at Big Jones, tells NRN. “It’s amazing more restaurants don’t do it. My grandmother used to pickle anything. Today we’re putting up watermelon rind.”

Of course, pickles are also served alongside other dishes — you know, your pickle spear atop a cheeseburger.

And then there’s the pot of pickles dished up at Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen in San Francisco, which includes six or seven seasonal pickles. Right now it’s “carrots that are slowly cooked with curry and jalapeño peppers in a pickled brine, as well as green strawberries that are chilled for two to three days in a pickling liquid steeped with anise, coriander and orange peel.”

Peter Piper, eat your heart out.

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Categories: Food News | Tags: Burgers, Cucumbers, Party Appetizers, Pickles, Snacks
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