A Pretty Pickle - Guardian - Word of Mouth 11 June 2012

It doesn’t seem so long ago that pickled foods were no more than a supporting act in this country: the acidic gherkin you picked out of your burger, the ghostly eggs swimming in their jar in the pub, the tiny, crisp onions adorning your ploughman’s. How times have changed. Restaurant menus and cookbooks are now brimming with soused everything. We seem to have developed quite a fondness for the great big walloping punch delivered by food embalmed in vinegar, salt and seasonings.

Examine the menus of the newest restaurants and you’ll see that they’re all at it. If I should ever be lucky enough to nab a table at Dabbous I might be able to enjoy its delicate salad of fennel, lemon balm and pickled rose petals, over which food reviewers have rhapsodised. Down at Orchard they’re serving pickled heritage potatoes (apparently “heritage” means the tatties are blue) and at the revamped Quo Vadisdiners chomp on little pickled walnuts with their onglet. At Granger & Copickled cucumber goes down well with fish curry and Launceston Placeoffers cumin-pickled cabbage with its pork tenderloin.

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