The theme of the week is Pickled Foods. Over the next few days I will be trying various pickled items and sharing my experiences with them.

Yesterday I was having some conversations on twitter and the topic of pickled food items came up. I wondered out loud if pickles could go bad because the pickles in my fridge tasted funny. Then one of my friends mentioned pickled herring and that got me to thinking. There are many different pickled culinary foods. Almost anything can be pickled.

I mentioned that I had never eaten a fried pickle before and N.T.J. told me that I could order one at Piper Down near downtown Salt Lake. This was an opportunity to try something new so I told him that it was a date; and what time could we meet there for some fried pickles?

Piper Down has always had wonderful food and yesterday was no exception. I ordered the fried pickles and a stein of beer while my partner ordered something called a Bloody Mary burger.

The Bloody Mary burger also qualifies as a culinary item that we are allowed to eat this week because it comes with pickled asparagus. Imagine that. This is a very unique burger. Ground chuck beef marinated in bloody mary mix, the asparagus and Spanish olives. I will have to try it sometime.

fried pickles at piper down

I was immediately impressed when the fried pickles arrived. One look at them and I could tell that these were hand made, not some frozen food that came out of a bag only to be deep fried later. This was a genuine pickle sliced into thick portions, dipped into batter and deep fried. Served with the pickle was a sauce that I had identified as stone ground mustard and mayonnaise. Later, the bartender checked with the cook and confirmed this for us.

I don’t quite have the ability to describe foods that I have eaten but I can tell you that the fried pickles were worth trying. I think that the unique dipping sauce enhanced the experience. I will definitely be eating fried pickles again in the future.