I am known for my love of food, food festivals, and pickles! So, when my friend Abbie had heard about The Big Brine in London, she invited Dann and I along! This is a pickle-focused food festival that took place in Hackney, where there were tons and tons of pickle related items. I am talking pickles, kimchi, pickle-like items, sauces, and a lot of things that go well with pickles, if that makes sense.
Now, Abbie and James got to the venue at opening time and even got a goodie bag for being one of the first few in line! Dann and I had some plans in the morning and met them there a few hours later. Abbie and James did get to sign up for one of the workshops, as they were there at the start before it filled up. They made a bunch of different heat-pickled items, seasoned to their liking, and learned about different pickling processes. They had a few different demo workshops at The Big Brine including one where people made viral Chippy Boys and one that talked about a bunch of different pickled items! I do hope that next year they have a larger area for this, as there was clearly a big demand.
Other than the hands-on demos, there was a demo stage at The Big Brine where you could see chefs cooking up a storm, paring items with pickled things, and taking over the stage. Next to this stage, there was also a book signing corner, which had authors sitting in throughout the day, selling and signing their books. It was neat to see so many interactive elements to this festival. There were also just a lot of free samples at The Big Brine!
One area had a build your own pickle cup, with a bunch of different sauces. Another was handing out pickle powder that was dipped on a soda can, as a sort of dirty soda. You cannot even purchase this pickle powder yet as it’s not out! Another stand was giving away tasters of all of their pickled products, along with a product that’s not out until next year, but there were some purchasable items that you could take home. Many of the stands had pickled things you could eat right there; pickled strawberries with cheese and an oil jel; a corn dog with pickled jalapenos; platters of pickles with dips and crackers; pickle cocktails. There are just tons and tons!
I do wish that The Big Brine had some interesting pickled items like pickled green beans and frickles, which just seemed to be missing, but there was a lot of free samples and different pickle brands giving away items!
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!