It all started with BRS Pickles first making contact on Facebook and then asking me to sample their stuff. I told them I would be brutally honest and they accepted.

And they sent me four plastic bags of four different types of ‘home made’ pickle, about two or three spoons each. My wife shouted at me when I brought all the plastic bags on to the table and insisted that I wait till she served them properly.

Fine, I said…if you want to be posh, go ahead. But I am going to eat these pickles with rice, ghee, the works. And you dare not stop me!

I was joined in the experience by my daughter and a friend.

We started with one of the chicken pickles. Nice and succulent. Well drenched in oil and masalas. And the meat had absorbed the flavours. But that was not so surprising. Just a few days my daughter had cooked some chicken that had been marinated in her Grandma’s Home Made Pickle and the dish turned out to be a winner.

We moved on, licking our fingers…to the Prawn Pickle and that was indeed very good. Strangely enough, prawn pickles were the pickles I’ve had the most of…almost always from bottled stuff. And this version was as good as any of the branded stuff I’ve had.

We tried the other chicken pickle. This one with slightly chunkier pieces. But marinated enough to be tangy. Tangy, mind you, not spicy. And that was the common denominator. None of the pickles were prohibitively spicy.

I had kept the Mutton Pickle for the last. Because it had the most oil, and that scared me. I thought the experience of this harder meat may prove to be disappointing. The pieces were close to minced. And the oil was pooling around the chunks. But it was quite nice actually.

Which one was my favourite? Well, I must confess that the Chicken Pickles won hands down. With the prawns running to keep pace. Of course the mutton, being the heavier participant, lagged behind…but not by too much.

And then I remembered that I had forgotten to take a shot of the dishes themselves…and that is a kind of foodie fixation. All food must be shot before consumption.

But I did manage to get an “after” shot, and that is what is the pic above…four dishes used to serve pickles after they were licked clean.

I wanted to write off a ‘review’ immediately. But I was reminded of another Foodie Credo. Food must be enjoyed from both ends. So I waited for the next day, and I’m glad to inform you that the stomach behaved perfectly…a good sign for the pickles. Because an upset stomach the next day would have meant disaster.

If you still want to know about the pickles and what I felt about them, do send me a message. I’ll be glad to ignore it