This is Part 3 of our Oakland-Berkeley food adventure!
We are tickled pink about
Cultured, a pickle store in Berkeley. I should say that we are "pickled think" because I'm sure we'll have pickling jars and lots to think about after our visit today. I'm also very glad that a simple question such as "what do you do with the leftover ground rice?" at Takara Sake led us to this family-owned pickle store. It is an amazing specialty shop.
First, here's Alex's
video on pickling... "she can pickle almost anything", and we agree. Her husband, Kevin, was most welcoming, and spent over an hour educating us about pickles and kombucha. Then he brought out a spread of samples... WOW, talk about stretching our palate!
Kombucha with herbal infusions, brewing and waiting to be bottled
The red jar is
hibiscus kombucha. (Quick trivia - the hibiscus is a national flower of Malaysia)
In the display cooler are jars upon jars of pickled vegetables
Kevin offered to pop open a bottle of kombucha so we could sample. Our #1 selection, sassafras, was sold out, so we voted for Strawberry Oregano. He turned the bottle over and carefully turned it several times to re-suspend the "solids". Then, it took nearly 10 minutes to slowly coax the bottle open because of the natural carbonation. We loved the fine bubbles (and came home with 4 bottles!)
Nuka zukes- smoky like gouda cheese and crunchy too. Nuka miso is time consuming to make but produces pickles in one day! You have to rinse off the rice bran before eating.
Cultured's kitchen
Daikon - doesn't look too appetizing in this photo, but man oh man, is it GOOOOD!!!
Sake-flavored, pickled red turnip. A little too strong for us
The Pickled Garlic {{{Mmmmmmm, sigh}}} This has been pickling for 2 years. $25 a jar and well worth it
On the way out, M asked what was pickling in this jar by the front door. They look like plums but are actually apricots. See the layer of sugar at the bottom? When the sugar is melted/dissolved, the fruit is ready. Yum. Kevin, sensing M's enthusiasm with pickled foods, asked "Want to go see where we bury stuff?". No need to ask twice! :D
In the "cave". Keith explains that these are wine-fermenting bins with one-way valves for releasing CO2.
The "Japenese Section" where nuka is being prepared and where veggies are buried
Naturally extracted pickling juice. No brine and no vinegar is added, thank you very much.
The "Specials" at Cultured
Cultured's Raw Sauerkraut Menu
Here's an
article that just came out today about Cultured and here's
View on the Bay's segment that aired last summer. I can say that we have been cultured! This was definitely the highlight of our East Bay foodie trip today!
Good Eats episodes
American Pickle (Season 3)
Dill-icious (Season 11)
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