Bacon Unwrapped

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

And I'll have bacon for dessert, too!

Tonight I had the pleasure of dining at David Greggory, a Washington, DC restaurant that has taken bacon cuisine to the next level.

Every Wednesday night, David Greggory hosts an evening of "Pork and Pinot." Chef Greggory Hill prepares a collection of small plates of pork prepared in a variety of ways. And they match the dishes with Pinot Noir wines.

Chef Hill gets all of his bacon from The Grateful Palate. And he has a table set up in the dining room to carve meat straight from a whole roasted pig.







Chef Greggory Hill and the whole roasted pig




There were 10 items on tonight's menu, so we ordered one of each along with a couple flights of wine. The items were bacon & bleu cheese salad, pork tenderloin, tempura bacon, bacon wrapped shrimp, pork "burger" with bacon, bacon risotto, Tuscan ham sandwich, pork quesadilla, pulled pork on a bacon biscuit, and soft tacos carved to order from the whole roasted pig.

Everything was absolutely delicious. But there were a couple items that stood out for us. Given that rice and bacon are my two favorite foods in the world, I found the bacon risotto to be quite delicious. I've always wondered what deep fried bacon would taste like, and now I know - the tempura bacon was absolutely yummy. And the soft tacos were also really good - the meat from the roasted pig was tender and juicy. And a piece of crunchy pork skin was served on the side - mmm hmm!








Tempura Bacon and Pinot Noir




But the best thing about the meal was not on the menu and was entirely unexpected. After chatting with Chef Hill about my blog, he generously offered our group the last serving of bacon dessert. He called it a "Bacon S'more." It's a chocolate bacon souffle topped with bacon ice cream. We were all skeptical at first, but it was seriously one of the best desserts I've ever had. There was a slight taste of smokey bacon, which was strong enough to give the chocolate souffle and vanilla-based ice cream a kick, but not so overwhelming that we got weirded out about eating bacon for dessert.

David Greggory also hosts Aphrodisiac Bacon Dinners on the third Monday of each month. We've been told by a few people that this is a very delicious and entertaining evening that any true bacon lover shouldn't miss. We're hoping to go in March. In the meantime, Pork and Pinot can be experienced every Wednesday night. If you live in the DC area or are just visiting, this is a bacon event you must experience!

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BLT on a Stick

Today's recipe on The Bacon Show is BLT on a Stick. At last year's Iowa State Fair, I experienced a lot of things on a stick, but definitely no BLT. Someone needs to get on that! Attendance at the fair would almost certainly double in size!

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Sunday, January 22, 2006

A technical approach to cooking bacon

Cooking for Engineers did an experiment back in 2004/2005 that involved cooking bacon a variety of ways to determine which method produces the best bacon. It was a two part series - you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Methods tested include broiling, frying, microwaving, microwaving with a Makin' Bacon dish, grilling and slow baking. In the end, they determined that grilled or baked bacon is their favorite.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Feast of St. Anthony the Abbot

In honor of the patron saint of swine, today I am feasting on bacon as part of every meal.

So far I've had a bacon, egg and cheese bagel from the cafe in my office building for breakfast, and for lunch I had spaghetti carbonara from Corner Bakery.

What have you done today to honor St. Anthony?

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Monday, January 16, 2006

There's a new bacon blogger in town

Going Whole Hog is a new blog covering all things pork from the other side of the pond in Italy and France. Bloggers Kate and Diva are cooking their way through Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail cookbook.

More importantly, they have brought to my attention that tomorrow, January 17, is the feast of Saint Anthony the Abbot (San Antonio Abate), Patron Saint of Pigs. So tomorrow, I will incorporate bacon into all of my meals which I will recount on this blog.

By the way, I discovered Going Whole Hog from reading this blog post on the KQED blog from San Francisco where Bacon Unwrapped also gets a mention!

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Saturday, January 07, 2006

Bacon for vegetarians

The terms "vegetarian" and "bacon" seem like diametrical concepts, but apparently at some point along the way some formerly-bacon-loving vegetarians have found a way to bring these two worlds together.

A firm called Lightlife makes a product called Smart Bacon that is mostly made from soy.

And I came across a recipe on VegWeb for Vegan Bacon made from tofu cooked with yeast, soy sauce and liquid smoke.

Does this mean that even vegans and vegetarians can't resist the smell and taste of bacon? This may prove that bacon is the most powerful meat ever.

This post is in honor of my vegetarian friend, Kathleen.

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Bacon and bananas?

Sure, why not! Although all of the crushing and chopping seems a little unnecessary. And I'd probably leave the lettuce off myself.

Banana and Bacon Sandwich

1 1/2 cup crushed bananas
1 apple
4 bacon slices
Salt
Lettuce

Crush banana, chop crisped bacon and mince apple. Mix, add salt, spread between buttered slices of bread and add lettuce leaf.

From http://search.yumyum.com/recipe.htm?ID=19400

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Bacon Corn Chowder

Since it's cold outside, I'm thinking of warm things I can eat. This sounds good.

Bacon Corn Chowder

6 bacon strips
3/4 c. diced celery
1 sm. diced onion
1 c. diced raw potato
1 thinly sliced carrot
1 c. water
1 can creamed corn
1 c. milk
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper

In a heavy saucepan cook bacon, celery and onion over medium for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove bacon and drain off fat. Add water, potato, and carrot. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until potato and carrots are tender. Stir in creamed corn, milk, and seasonings. Heat do not boil. Yield: 4 servings.

From: http://www.cookbooksforsale.com/displayRecipe.php?rid=1931&by=50

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Free Range Bacon

It's hard to imagine pigs as "free range" since the term invokes images of some animal roaming around a wide open field, and most pigs spend their days laying around in the mud. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I randomly came across such a thing while searching for something else on Google today. It seems to be a mostly British/Australian thing - I only found a couple U.S. websites that referenced it. But I like free range eggs, so I guess I'll have to keep searching for a store that sells free range bacon here in the States so I can check it out.

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Wasted URL

Have you ever been to http://www.bacon.com/?

Such a URL has so much potential, yet it is being wasted by some URL scalper.

Very sad.

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Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Beef Bacon Redux

Back in September, I wrote about beef bacon. Bacontarian.com also did a very spiritual write up today on bBacon. The debate continues...

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