The Cucumber King
- thomasvonriedt
- Nov 30
- 1 min read
Saturday morning in Zurich-Oerlikon: between flower stalls, cheese counters, and loud Italian traders stands one man everybody seems to know—the Cucumber King of Oerlikon. In his wooden barrels lie Spreewald gherkins, chili gherkins, and garlic gherkins, alongside sauerkraut, oils, and little elixirs against the winter blues.
The narrator wanders across the market, watching people, dialects, and small rituals—from the baker from Appenzell to the Moroccan seller of the street paper Surprise. Yet again and again the path leads back to Jens , the Saxon jack-of-all-trades with a warm heart and a sharp tongue, who leaves home long before sunrise to sell his delicacies.
The Cucumber King of Oerlikon is a fond, gently humorous tribute to the weekly market, to the old craft of pickling, and to those people whose charm, skill, and unmistakable way of speaking make a city feel a little more like home.
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