Thanks to Kath for showing me this delicious site. It’s all bacon, all the time.
http://bacon.alltop.com/
August 8, 2008
Thanks, Fyr. You wrong for this. But thank you.
Bacon makes everything better — even chocolate? – Yahoo! News
By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 8, 7:02 PM ET
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Here are three little words that might give the
staunchest snacker pause: Chocolate-covered bacon.
It
sounds so wrong. But it tastes just right, says Joseph Marini III, a
fourth-generation candy maker who is selling the bacon bonbons at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk seaside amusement park.
“It’s not just for breakfast any more,” he says with a grin.
And this isn’t just a wacky West Coast thing.
This year, Famous Dave’s at the Minnesota State Fair is rolling out Pig Lickers — dark chocolate-covered bacon pieces sprinkled with sea salt.
“It’s just like the most bizarre combination,” says fair spokeswoman
Brienna Schuette. “I actually really liked it. It was a good
combination of sweet and salty.”
The urge to create new flavor profiles is a natural for a field driven by creativity, says Karen Page, co-author with Andrew Dornenburg of the forthcoming “The Flavor Bible,” a sort of field guide to flavor pairings.
Chefs have two basic agents of change: using a different cooking
method or mixing up flavors. So a classic such as tomatoes and basil
might get turned into tomato sorbet with a basil sauce. Or you might
find unorthodox couplings, such as salads of watermelon and feta or
cotton candy with foie gras.
“There’s a whole trend toward chefs pushing the boundaries,” says
Page. “Chefs are trying to be more playful and incorporate new kinds of
whimsy.”
It’s hard to tell exactly where the dream of candy-coated breakfast
meats started, but for Marini, the inspiration was a trip with some ski
buddies a while back.
“One guy came up with, ‘Who doesn’t love bacon? Who doesn’t love chocolate? Let’s marry them together.’”
So Marini gave it a shot and after some trial and error — crispness
is key, he says, noting that chewy bacon plus chocolate is undelicious
— he came up with a product.
“It was kind of a joke to begin with,” he says. “We brought it down
to the boardwalk and put it in a case just to see if people would
react, and they reacted.”
Take boardwalk visitor Nathan Lopez,
who on a recent foggy morning had a quizzical look on his face as he
began eating a sample at Marini’s at the Beach. But he finished with a
smile.
“Interesting combination,” was the verdict. “I didn’t think it would be very good but once I tried it; it was good.”
Of course, chocolate-coated bacon is just the latest incarnation of the wackier-the-better fair food philosophy.
Fair food has been shaking up the snack scene for some time, says
Ron Whiting, of Whiting’s Foods, whose family has been selling food at
the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for decades.
“Years ago, I think food tended to be more traditional and less
fun,” he says. Then came the corn dog and the era of quick and
on-a-stick. “We all talk about the next corn dog,” he says.
Fry, fry again is a persistent theme. Current popular snacks include deep-fried Twinkies and Oreos.
Page, who admits to eating “more than my fair share of fried
dough,” notes that gourmet chefs have taken to putting food — just
about any food — on a stick, coming up with some posh Popsicles.
Meanwhile, there’s the foie gras-cotton candy matchup, not a stretch
flavor-wise since foie gras usually is paired with something sweet, but
certainly visually arresting.
“It’s the melding of both these worlds, the high end and the low end,” said Page.
Never underestimate the appeal of battered-is-better.
July 13, 2008
Bacon floss will be the biggest thing to hit mouth care since the teethbrush.
The name got changed to “toothbrush” when folks in West Virginia didn’t understand the plural form.
April 21, 2008
Rockhoppers Daily Grind: Bacon Peanut-butter Cookies
Big ups to Jali for sending me this li’l nugget. See, y’all thought I was crazy when I made my Tang & Bacon Bars last year, but those were utterly interesting. Notice that I didn’t say “delicious”, because I’m trying to be honest about the concoction. They weren’t horrible, but the Tang was a bit much. But peanut-butter bacon cookies sound like drops of Heaven caressing my hard and soft palette. I simply must have some.
April 2, 2008
Dear lord. This may even be too much for me. I mean, I love bacon, but this chick LOVES bacon. You know, like THAT. There’s such a thing as too much, and this woman found it and put it on her body. Couldn’t she have at least COOKED the bacon? Was that just too much?
Thanks to Randi for the link. I think.
March 30, 2008
Thank you, HotDrWife, sent via the wonders of Stumble.
What we have here is the coolest treat I’ve ever encountered. Behold the wonders of…
Oh yes.
