064 - a pickle phenomenon

does anyone think about pickles as much as i do?

if you don’t like pickles, share this to your friend who does.

I have a strange hyperfixation on pickles. Last year when Arca launched its personal knowledge manager, the only collection I had fun organising was one about pickles. I don’t think I really even know how deep my hyperfixation goes. Sometimes my brain confuses pickles for olives and olives for pickles. Once when trying to order extra olives, I asked for extra pickles, and didn’t realise. When the waiter arrived with a plate of pickles, and set it down saying ‘here’s your girl dinner’, I was very confused. The friends I was with (and the waiter) insisted that I did actually ask for pickles.

I’ve always leaned toward savory. Growing up in Malaysia meant my breakfast was absolutely delicious. My memories of sunday mornings are filled with mee soto, nasi lemak, paper dosa, or idli. To this day, my morning palate growls in anticipation for these mouth watering dishes (always disappointed by the more healthy alternative of oatmeal). BUT I digress! My point is, my stomach is and always a salty girl. Give me anchovies, crisps, sharp cheese, and something pickled, and I am very happy!

the pickle hyperfixation

I’m not the only one with this hyperfixation. Pickles have become a defining food for online culture and instead of symbolizing financial recklessness, they’re a badge of economic pragmatism. Vox describes avocados as once being a “tiny bit luxurious”, a status symbol that represented millennial excess. But pickles are the opposite: cheap, shelf-stable, and gut-friendly. They don’t spoil quickly. They don’t fluctuate much in price. They feel dependable in a way that matters more now than it used to. This isn’t just about taste. It’s about what feels reasonable.

“In 2024, almost 20,000 pickle and pickle-flavored items were sold in retail, up 20% from 2023, according to data from Kantar. Last year, 65% of U.S. adults who snack said they have tried or are interested in snacks with a pickle flavor, according to Mintel data. Data from food science company Rubix Foods found that 30% of Gen Zers say they love pickles, while another 20% described their passion as an obsession.”

Online, pickles are easy content. #prettypickles are pickles mixed with edible glitter. There are pickle christmas trees. Pickle cakes. Chamoy pickles are pickles marinated in a Mexican sauce of fruit, lime, chilis and salt, became viral as people started to stuff them with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or Takis, wrapping them in Fruit Roll-Ups, and eating them on camera.

This is great for pickle brands, who lean in all the way in. Grillo creates content speaking directly to pickles' superfans, taking their audience on a journey of flying pickles (5.6M views), using a pickle as a bookmark, or making pickletoe (6.9M views). The absurdity is the point.

the aesthetics of restraint

For most of the 2010s, food culture was built on aspiration. Avocado toast. Açai bowls. Elaborate charcuterie boards. Martini towers. Oyster trays. These foods weren’t just about taste; they were proof you had time, money, energy, health, leisure. What’s replacing them isn’t anti-aesthetic. It’s anti-excess.

Pickles. Beans. Tinned fish. Anchovies. Butter on a board. Foods that are salty, intense, filling, and crucially, portionable. When Violet Witchel’s “dense bean salad” went viral, it wasn’t selling transformation or optimization. It was selling sufficiency. These foods still get styled, we live in the performance economy after all. Savory plates are arranged just as carefully as smoothie bowls ever were. But the signal has changed. They don’t imply abundance. They imply control.

This isn’t about affordability in a literal sense. Sardines aren’t cheap. Anchovies aren’t cheap. Good cheese definitely isn’t cheap. Tinned fish, especially, has quietly become its own new status symbol. Some cans cost more than a full meal.

But all these foods are meant to be eaten in small amounts. A few slices. A forkful. One tin, carefully opened. A small pile of pickles. A few shards of cheese. The meal looks intentional, almost ascetic. It signals taste rather than appetite. They reward moderation. Even when they’re expensive, they feel responsible. The old aspirational foods said: I have enough to waste. The new ones say: I know how to make a little feel like enough.

This is still performance. But instead of performing wealth, we’re performing discipline. Instead of abundance, we’re performing the ability to enjoy pleasure without overdoing it. In an economy where excess feels reckless, restraint has become aspirational.

@pictureperfectluis

Luis Flores on Instagram: "POV: you visit the viral store where…

the -ification of pickles

Mintel’s Melanie Bartelme says pickles “bring a sense of nostalgia yet also feel modern.” They’re old and new at the same time. Familiar enough to comfort, strange enough to post.

And let’s be honest, we are talking about pickles here. They’re not particularly aesthetic. They’re wet, sour, divisive. People either love them or hate them. They stain plates. They smell. They ruin sandwiches. They’re not aspirational food. And yet: Grillo's makes pickle humidifiers. Pamela Anderson sells her pickles for $38. Every brand wants in on what was supposed to be the anti-brand food.

@lalalovleyyTHERES LITERALLY PICKLE BOBA IN THE SLUSHIE #sonicmenu #tastetest #secretmenu #sonicdrinks #sonicdrivein #kpopdemonshunters #sajaboys

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But even the most humble, ugly, inconvenient food can be branded, aestheticized, optimized, and sold back to us as a lifestyle. Even something that was never meant to mean anything has to mean something now. It’s not that pickles represent restraint, rebellion, or authenticity. They represent the fact that we don’t get an outside. There is no corner of culture too small, too silly, or too unglamorous to escape being folded into the same loop.

So yes, I have a pickle fixation. Not because pickles are special, but because even something this stupid, this ugly, this unnecessary can’t be left alone. Or maybe I just spent too much time thinking about pickles.

field notes

• ARTICLES: the debate of how friendships exist lives on. The last year has seen lots of people talk about friendships should exist by creating new experiences together, and how catch up friendships should die. and we should do chores with our friends instead. I think I agree to an extent, but sometimes there are friends you only want for the catch up, and friends you want for the experience. am i overthinking it? How should a book stack be? I think about this a lot, because not every book is designed the same, and because I have a lot of books. How are people neatly stacking these things, are they really reading them!! Am i overthinking it? Yes, definitely. How Gaza broke the art world explores Nan Goldin, and the efforts of other artists in speaking out about Palestine when so many in the art world seek to separate the art from the artist. Few things are able to make me totally focus these days, this article on consciousness was one of them. For the lovers of heated rivalry, this essay is for you.

• BOOKS: I have started the blockbuster book Shantaram, which was gripping from the very beginning. But, ngl, I have gotten a little bored, not necessarily because of the story but maybe because my attention span is broken. I also started Algospeak, written by Adam Aleksic, aka @etymologynerd (his tiktok here for educational videos about language). I would recommend this book for anyone interested in internet anthropology, and how language has changed with social media.

• WATCH: I had a Daniel Day Lewis marathon with my friend after watching Phantom Thread!!! I think Phantom thread is my favorite; followed by There will be blood; followed by Gangs of New York; followed by Lincoln. I watched his and hers, because i and I definitely did not expect that twist. Happily surprised. Hijack first season is a gripping (albeit formulaic) thriller series that distracted me for a while.

• RANDOM: some great person has made a bad bunny syllabus, a great reminder that we have free will. and another person with free will who created a bunch of very cool things last year. Perfectly imperfect’s guide to budget hacking is great. 2026 Macrotrend report includes trends like aspirational humanity; subversive sincerity; algorithmic evasion and more. This woman talks about how she took down a misogynistic billboard in malaysia. There is a subreddit called r/perfumesthatsmelllike where people post pictures of rain in the garden, or a greenhouse or a collage of images to get audiences to recommend perfumes that evoke those feelings. CES conference came and went, and I am intrigued by the lollypop you can hear music with?? Another great person made this tool that can make your favorite substack into a printable newspaper. I LOVE THAT so much. 2026 is the year of frictionmaxxing

• NEWS: Yesterday a photo went viral of A 5 YEAR OLD BEING DETAINED IN MINNESOTA by ICE. The news cycle has been horrific for a long time, and since 2026 it continues to get worse. Trump launched his ‘Board of Peace’, at the same time Palestinians continue to get killed in Gaza, the Venezuela was attacked. It’s hard to stay abreast of everything that is going on, and why, and wonder whether we really do live in a lawless society…I am feeling sad about it.

  

  @leansvideoarchivebut WHY? #butwhy #penguin #mountain #edit #motivation

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  ok bye! if i missed any links, or made any spelling errors and you saw them, did you really? Also if you liked something I said or didn’t, tell me! I love nothing more than when I get a text about the things I write. 🥰🍄🙋🏽‍♀️