Celebrate Sauerkraut With "Kraut Rocks" In September

Be completely honest with yourself. Can you think of anything cooler than sauerkraut? Seriously, can anything possibly get hipper than fermented cabbage?

Well, once it has been heavily endorsed by Spike Mendelsohn and given its very own festival — probably not. The coolness of sauerkraut will be made official tomorrow, when the web site for Kraut Rocks goes live, kicking off a month-long celebration of the merits of kraut, brought to you by Mendelsohn and his famous culinary friends in D.C.

For the event, he gathered up five well-known Washington, D.C. chefs, who will each feature a unique sauerkraut-based dish on their menus throughout the month of September. Kraut enthusiasts can vote for their favorite dish on the web site, where they can also enter a sweepstakes to win a $250 gift card to the winning eatery or one of Mendelsohn's restaurants. Here are the competitors and their entries:

Erik Bruner-Yang of Toki Underground: Suan cai pork belly rice with congee

Fabrice Reymond of Redline: Aumônière

Ian Reeves of The Queen Vic: Pork loin with sauerkraut and roasted apples

Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore's: Kraut Rocks mussels

Ryan Wheeler of Virtue Feed & Grain: Sauerkraut Scotch egg

The Kraut Rocks web site will be a go-to online shrine to sauerkraut, featuring recipes, coupons, and videos, including footage of the chefs cooking their dishes, discussing the evolution of D.C. dining, and even a behind-the-scenes look at Mendelsohn and chef Mike Isabella tasting some of the dishes.