The Quest for the Perfect Pickle

It all started this summer when my mom and I went grocery shopping on a blistering hot Saturday during one of those infamous New York City heatwaves. You know what I'm talking about.
We were really there to buy some spring water and somehow found ourselves in the aisle where pickles are stocked. I'm not sure what came first-my mom wanting pickles from the get go or wanting pickles after finding herself in front of the countless glass cans. I think it was the latter, because sometimes you just can't help but picture eating a burger...but it needs...a certain something. A good pickle, dang it.
Mom looked around and commanded me to find a good brand of pickles. I was the wrong person to ask as I am not a very big fan of pickles or pickled anything, really. We must have stood there for more than five minutes, hopelessly reading the labels. And this must be said-I felt myself in a pickle, darn it! Finally, I took a glass can of Vlasic, that proudly read "That's one crunchy pickle!" on the cap and walked to pay hoping I made the right decision.
Well, when we came home and tasted a pickle each, we didn't even finish what we had bit into. The pickles were sour, too vinegar-y, yucky and gross and the taste took away from finding whether or not they were indeed crunchy.
Enter the very awesome Tent October 2013 List-an option to order pickles from mouth.com-an indie food start-up that really seems to know pickles. I was impressed with the selection but ordering food online is tricky. It's like shopping for jeans. Online. Oh, the horror. I wanted something unusual, but not too unusual, nothing too spicy and something that my mom might like too, so I settled for Lynnae's Sweet Dill Spears from Tacoma, Washington, promising to be sweet and a little tart.
They arrived, I opened them without refrigerating them. Usually, they say the fantasy is better than the reality. But not these. They were the best pickles I had ever tasted. My mom would sometimes come home with a small plastic container of home-made pickles from a polish store in my neighborhood, and those were just OK. Lynnae's Mrs. Pickles pickles are flavor layered: first sweet, then sour, then a bit spicy. Just perfect and taste exactly as I had craved. This is the pickle I had been waiting for my entire life. I recommend them and think sometime in the future I might come back to purchase more. Even my mom likes them, and my mom is one tough, hard to please critic. She knows food and pickles-my grandma and her used to make their own pickled everything when they lived in the mother country-Ukraine-before coming to New York.
Plus, take a look at the super cool packaging, bag and a hand-made note the Mouth.com team provided with the shipment. They also attached a small chocolate sample for me. I really felt special. Good job Mouth.com

Only the best pickles warrant a peace sign.

Look at this cool canvas bag with a small wooden spoon/spatula attached!

My holy grail of pickled goodness!

Thanks for reading an stopping by! Also, please take a look at all the cool seminars the Tent Program has in store for 2014 for all you twenty-something Jewish kids interested in fashion, food, journalism, comedy, music, etc. I had a blast this summer, take a look on why.

These Shoes Were Made for Walkin'

These are the very amazing Dolce & Gabana shoes I tried on today ideal for man-repelling in the rain. The rubber ballet shoes are stitched to the long socks. So that you can at once feel like Cinderella and Mr. Darcy. If they had somehow fit into my life wardrobe I would totally buy them, but seeing as how I own no previous D & G, I'm sure they will just be lonely in their chic little box. Perhaps, this could be the start of a D & G collection? I would honestly wear them with anything. That's just the kind of girl I am.

I couldn't find them anywhere online-these were being sold at a Century21 store in New York, but I did find a similar pair, although these are heels, from D & G here.

Judah Friedlander at the Mermaid Parade

Now that our nation has turned 237 years yesterday-we thought we should finally share some photos from Coney Island's Mermaid Parade that happened June 22nd or otherwise it might have taken us another 237 years to post the photos. Can you spy Judah Friedlander? He was King Neptune at this year's parade.

Love her cotton candy hair! Don' t you have a weird impulse to eat it?

Body-painted Mermaid

A group of Mermaids. They might be from Japan considering the umbrella's.

Judah Friedlander being whisked by the crowd in his "King Neptune Throne on Wheels." Judah, not so fast!

That's better!

Pet Costume Pageant!

There's the annual MET Costume Gala and then there's the annual Coney Island Pet Costume Pageant! We were there this weekend on the famed red carpet boardwalk to see the cuteness in action! And we're glad to say that all the pets and their owners enjoyed the event and will hopefully be back next year, unlike some people. We're looking at you, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Little girl Chloe and her cute guinea pig Cookie Dough won 3rd place wearing a pink and purple tutu!

Little Chihuahua Pepito won 2nd place in his Uncle Sam costume and yellow booties. How patriotic and fashion forward! 

And the 1st place winner was a poodle named Baby, also a 1st place winner two years ago, arrived  in peace via flying saucer wearing the color du jour  for all poodles this season: green!

We would also like to give props to the hostess and her very shiny dress, hair and makeup. Work it!

A Little Bit Patriotic

In all honesty, we are not really surprised by what we see on the NYC streets anymore. Growing up in NY, we feel like we have seen everything. And then some. So it was a huge surprise, and a bit of an adrenaline rush, when we spotted this girl walking, dressed all patriotic. Ish. Kind of.  We should have asked her what her inspiration was for the outfit-was it a political statement or a personal statement? Does she collect Americana clothes? How did she come about to own these pieces? Did she dress like so because "she can?" Oh, heck, the lines have blurred. Better yet, what would John Stewart and Stephen Colbert say? Do you think this takes the stars and stripes into uncharted territory? Tell us!

We Just Want...

While experiencing a major sugar rush today in one of those "pile as much candy as you can into this little baggie" stores, (no not Dylan's Candy Bar, we live in Brooklyn), we came across a few vintage-y magnets that we had to share. We will share a few of them in later posts, but we're starting with this one, because while all boys and girls have a list of cliches of what they want in a significant other, this magnet gets right to the point. Love is tough, so please lets make things a bit easier:

Darling, I attest! And so here's just a small list of the things we hate, in case, dear soulmate, you're reading this:

1) Articles with headlines such as "Khloe Kardashian Rocks Super Tight Jeans"
2) People with crazy large backpacks on an already crowded train during rush hour
3) When Starbucks runs out of skim milk. Or whole milk. Or heavy cream. Or napkins. Or the plastic stirrer thing. Or ALL of these things. (Usually this happens at that one Starbucks in Chinatown).
4) People hating on Gary Busey
5) That little spinning color wheel when your Mac freezes.
6) Those store "Rewards" cards where you try to get to 5,000 points for a coupon, but you're always stuck at 330 points because you can only get points on items on this week's promotion. And it's crappy stuff like...Q-tips. The store brand type. Ugh.
7) Paying additional shipping and handling charges for that "Get Second One Free" item on that infomercial. Because honestly, that's how much that thing costs anyway.
8) People next to you who listen to their music crazy loud on the subway. I don't want to hear Justin Bieber's voice this morning. Or kind of ever.
9) Missing the time slot of the "Lunch Special" by two minutes.
10) Season Finales

First Lady of Fabulous...

Shopping in New York City's "Pearl River Mart" this weekend, where you can find the most interesting tchotckes that you never knew you wanted, we came across this canvas shopping bag...with Michelle Obama on it proclaiming her as the "First Lady of Fabulous."
What we don't understand is...why is she on an invisible swing? Why is Bambi there? Why is The White House flying on a hot air balloon? So many questions... However, her arms look as divine as ever! This tote can be yours for around $5. Around here, we kind of really hope that Mrs. Obama has a chance to see this illustration. Oh, what would she think? What do YOU think? Comment away.

Best Bag Ever?

This bag is absolutely that special something which applies to living in New York City! In today's world where Missed Connections posts speak volumes about modern day romance and unrequited love, why not just purchase this awesome Kate Spade bag to do the talking for you on your commute? Or, better yet, this bag might just give you the guts to strike up a conversation with that guy you've exchanged countless glances with this morning. Go get him girls!

The Power of Cake

While browsing the shelves of Barnes & Noble this past weekend, one of us stumbled upon the cooking section and found the Holy Grail of all books-quite possibly one that trumps War and Peace, Anna Karenina, or you know, The Power Broker. Actually, all of them quite easily-The Cake Bible. Because, no matter where you're from or what religion you belong to, we can all appreciate a delicious piece of cake.
We suggest you buy this book and share a slice. Just sayin'.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today, we should all feel just a little more Irish than usual, if only for the awesome "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts. So go ahead- enjoy the parade, a delicous Shamrock Shake, or a pint or two of Irish beer. Hey, we're not Irish but we're excited!
And here's a photo we snapped of two policemen yesterday getting into the spirit of the holiday-armed with guns, kilts, and the whitest shoes we've ever seen with a touch of green! From a sartorial perspective, we like it alot. And now, the flashback to Marc Jacobs' choice of wardrobe, except he chose to go the black boot/white socks route. Men showing a little leg is kind of hot, no?

We Demand Excellence in...

Now because you demand excellence in all other aspects of your life, the above referenced T-Shirt hints to one of the most important areas where we should all demand excellence in. Don't you agree? We snapped this photo outside a Sleepy's Mattress store on a rainy evening-hence the drops of water on the window-and we couldn't agree more. Sleepy's is really going up a notch in their advertising aren't they? The T-Shirt alone was enought to get us into the store and we didn't even need a mattress. We should all get this T-Shirt to remind ourselves of whatever "excellence in bed" means to us, because it can mean a variety of things, like curling up with a great book. It doesn't matter as long as your experience in bed is excellent.

Your City Can Be Sexy!

We absolutely could not resist sharing this photo taken of what is a nod to "Sex and the City," which may just be one of the best shows that has ever hit TV. (Yeah, we're not buying what we're selling about this comment either). We just didn't know that you can bottle sexy, but apparently you can and it's a bargain! Which got us to thinking-if you could bottle sexy, what would your sexy be? We would bottle that very sexy beast Austin Powers, obviously. And Andy Samberg.

WE'RE BACK in full Pink!

Good to see all of you again! We are back from our hiatus! Sorry that The Drastically Blog© took a semi-longer than expected vacation, this is what happens when hurricane's hit NYC and meteors strike Russia. We promise we are back in full swing!!!! And of course "Spring" rhymes with swing so here is a very cheery photo snapped in the subway and a reminder that the warmer season is coming! Many, many props to this fine gentleman! Real men wear pink. You should tell your boyfriend that. Thanks for reading-more posts soon.