Ya got cha pickled eggs, 'n' pickled shrimp, 'n' pickled okra

I was prepping pickled jerusalem artichokes recently and got to thinking about the long litany of southern dishes that get stowed away in pickling (mason) jars for the long haul. It’s not like this at all in Tel Aviv, where it’s all about cucumbers and olives. That’s about it. But not where I’m from.

Reminded me of that scene from Forest Gump, when best bud Bubba begins itemizing all the different ways shrimp is prepared in the South. Why such a plethora of pickled dishes in the South and such a dearth in Tel Aviv? The weather isn’t all that different. And the availability of an extensive range of foodstuffs isn’t all that dissimilar. Even the European roots of (part of) Israeli culture, with its practice of preserving various things like cabbage and beets, would seem to be a culinary influencer. But not so much. Why the hell not?

The obvious answer — that Israel is simply not much of a pickling culture — comes quickly to mind. Take the example of pickled cucumbers as an example. The range here in Israel is paltry. We make a bread and butter pickle in our soul food kitchen and it wows folks — they’ve never tasted anything like it. Which to me begs a deeper question. Why not?

I can cobble together at least a tentative response via my own childhood. Back then, my generation viewed pickled foods as something “old fashioned,” “old world,” even unhealthy. Except for a condiment we added to burgers and hotdogs, it wasn’t something we were much interested. It’s only in recent years that the attractions of pickled foods — including nutritional benefits — have begun to resurface.

I think a similar pattern can be detected here in Israel, where pickled foods have long been associated with a bourgeois, Ashkenazi zeitgeist that Israeli culture by and large rebelled against. And that same early distancing from the Old World has remained in place to this day.

Eventually, I think, attitudes here will change as well. That’s the mission here, anyway, to introduce a remarkable but largely unfamiliar cuisine to this part of the Mediterranean. But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong.