Kooleggs

and i tried making koolickles too

Hey, clowns!

Did you miss me?! Davida and I had a fun time at Disney World last week, though I forgot just how overstimulating that place can be. All that color and sound, now I need to hang out in a sensory deprivation tank for two months. Too bad for me, though, because I’m still eating in hypercolor today.

That’s because today’s Food is Stupid experiment is based off the concept of a Kool-Aid pickle, also known as a “Koolickle.” If you’ve never heard of them, Koolickles are a Southern snack that are thought to have been invented in the Mississippi Delta area. They’re exactly what their name suggests — these are pickles that have been marinating in their own brine, along with Kool-Aid mix.

I’d never had a Koolickle, so I figured the best way to try one was to make a batch for myself. But then I said to myself, “Dannis Ree, as the greatest food writer in all of history, you can further innovate the concept of this Koolickle using your presidential-level intellect. What other type of pickled food could you potentially Kool-Aidify?”

I mulled over all the different types of pickled foods I’ve tried in the past. Most of them were produce of some kind, like cucumbers, mushrooms, and radishes, which all seemed like tame options. But then I suddenly remembered one type of pickled food I’ve eaten at both sticky dive bars and on high-end menus: pickled eggs.

Ah, yes. I could try Koolickling the humble pickled egg! Considering sky-high egg prices these days, I pictured this potentially becoming a new luxury item, almost like caviar. I mean, chicken eggs are like fish eggs of the land, right?

Turns out it takes about a week to make a proper batch of Koolickles, which meant that our vacation time would be the perfect time to let these versions sit.

My secret preplanning paid off. Let’s all thank Mickey for keeping me distracted while these things marinated back home in Chicago, shall we?