I've been feeling bad that I just haven't updated this blog in a few weeks, but I just haven't cooked or eaten anything blog worthy. Definitely had some good things to eat, but nothing to write home about (no pun intended). Then I went out for drinks tonight with my friend JR and he was asking if I had blogged anything lately. Then I come home and see something on Facebook about International Bacon Day. I followed the link to and found out that in the United States, International Bacon Day, is celebrated on the Saturday before Labor Day, or today (no explanation why it was listed as United States specific, shouldn't it be International Bacon Day everywhere, or American Bacon Day). Regardless it got me thinking about bacon. Interestingly, despite all advances in healthy eating, bacon which is considered one of the most unhealthy foods, is increasing in popularity. I mean everywhere you hear ads with bacon this bacon that. So in honor of today's holiday, I wanted to talk about bacon a bit.
1) My favorite bacon in the world is from Whole Foods. Weekend mornings they do a breakfast spread that has all the bacon you could want. Thick cut, a great maple flavor, and cooked well. Bacon is one of the foods that people tend to have strong feelings towards how it is cooked. Some like it black and crumbly, some prefer white and chewy. I like mine very much in the middle, mostly because I like my bacon to be a piece of meat and cooked as it were any other protein, to completion, but not dried out and overdone. Whole Foods cooks their perfectly to my standards.
2) During a weekend of partying in San Diego a few years ago, we woke up all kinds of hung over. The only things we could find to eat were a bowl of candy (fun sized Snickers and Hershey Bars and such) and a package of bacon. So as the bacon was cooking, the candy was eaten. Once the bacon was cooked, the bacon was eaten, but it just wasn't doing the trick. You can only guess where this turned. Snickers wrapped in bacon. Meh. Crunch bars with crunchy bacon. So-so. But then. Then we found the Kit-Kats. If they are the Kat, then the bacon was the Kat's meow. The crunchy wafers, the soft chocolate (hot greasy bacon melts milk chocolate, duh). The sweet cocoa and the salty meat. By this point most people are probably gagging (I know this photos or links to this on Google were impossible to find), but until the day I die, I will recommend people to try this. Just awesome.
3) When I first started to really cook for myself on a regular basis, about two years ago, I came across this recipe on the internet. Since then I have yet to find a group of people (most likely guys) that are ballsy enough to try the Bacon Explosion. Its gotta be people that are just like to hell with it. I know that this is totally bad for me, but at the same time I am an adventurous enough eater to try this crazy thing. So what is it? You start by taking a pound of raw bacon weaving it into a bacon quilt and then seasoning it. Then you take 2 lbs of raw Italian Sausage and make a layer on top of your seasoned bacon quilt. Then a pound of crumbled bacon on top of the sausage and add some BBQ sauce. Roll it all together and cook it. Glaze with BBQ sauce once you've taken it out of the cooker. Eat it however you want or slice and serve on top of a biscuits. I have to say what I can write about this dish really doesn't do it justice. Clink on the link (here it is again) to see photos, a much better recipe, or if you want you can buy whole and half logs ($29.99 and $17.99, respectively, a bit less than I would have expected).
While doing some research for this post I came across another food blog, This Is Why You're Fat, completely horrible foods that you can't begin to wonder about the mindset of whom ever created them.
So to celebrate International Bacon Day eat some bacon, turkey bacon, soy bacon, whatever kind of bacon you want in whatever kind of you want. And for god sakes, if you find and Raccoon Bacon get me some.
