What is it about Bacon?

I have been hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting a lot lately about bacon. It seems that there is a certain something about bacon that appeals to a lot of people. It's a unexplainable feeling that's visceral and which convinces us if bacon is good, more bacon is better. Similarly we also like to think that everything is better with bacon. I'd like to present a few examples.

First, Tony's side of bacon. On our trip up to northern MI we stopped at a Brich Run restaurant staple known as Tony's. It is known for the huge portions and, in particular, their sides of bacon. Matt and I had heard about it all the way there from my mom and dad and it sounded too interesting to pass up. I think I have eaten there before but have no memory for these anecdotal events and a different taste in my mouth from those days to these. As we ordered I waited for the famous bacon to be added to someone's meal or picked up as a side but everyone shied away from what had been the talk of the trip up there. I had to do it so I added a side of bacon to my order of french toast (see photo). It's effectively a basket full of bacon, and by bacon they mean huge cuts of fried pig (no thinly sliced strips here). I got help from some of the others but we could not finish it.

Second, Camp Bacon. On the same trip we also visited Ann Arbor and stopped by one of my favorite place to eat, Zingerman's. It's more than a deli, more than a bakery, it's a mailorder, publishing, olive pressing, cheese aging, explosion of taste. Anyway, they are celebrating the release of their newest book, Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon with a bacon extravaganza of sorts. They're offering a number of bacon-enhanced recipes at their various shops and encouraging people to try them all in what they call the Tour de Bacon. This includes bacon scones and reduced price bacon add-on for any ice cream order. I trust their appreciation of food to do right by bacon but it's still a shock to see it on some of these dishes.

Finally, the Bacon Explosion. I have only posted a teaser picture, please visit the website and look at it in all its bacony glory. I found out about it from a series of tweets by a friend of mine, Chad. He has recently come into a new smoker and is busy experimenting with the limits of what meats can do. The Bacon Explosion appears to be the epitome of bacon exuberance. Glutony is too simple a description, it's the gastronomical equivalent of a Bernie Madoff-size ponzi scheme. Average people can only begin to imagine the limits of its wealth. You bring home a lot of bacon and then you bring home more and more. You revile it but you also want it. I imagine I could take about 2 bites but I have no idea what to expect with them.

I'm anxious to hear other bacon experiments and eccentricities as we continue to search the mysteries that are bacon.

The Fate of Many a Tomato

Not a BLT or a homemade sauce, this is the fate of more than 20 of the ripening tomatoes in our backyard. The cause: squirrels. They are systematically picking apart the tomato plants and trying each fruit. If it's not ripe they make a few bite marks and move on to the next. The picture was of the specimen I found today, one I had hoped they would continue to passup due to its size. It used to be a ripening bradywine variety, but now it's compost.

I have not mentioned much about the garden this year but it has, until now, been a fairly successful followup to our foray last year. We added a bed and a more substantial fence and even planted some flowering plants for decoration and maybe bees. Also we tried lettuce and started most of our vegetables from seeds. The first setback was the now annual attack of the squash vine borer. This moth lays eggs on squash which hatch inside the stem and eat the plant from the inside. We found them last year and they struck again on our best squash this summer. Next year I think we'll definitely go with the easier and more consistant cucumber. Also, the peper plants have taken forever to come in from seed. They may just now be getting there. Now the squirrels have moved in and they are tearing up the tomatoes. The good news is that the compost is going gangbusters and we should be able to greatly improve our soil over the winter. We're slowly grwoing our GA clay into noteworthy soil.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

The Day Michael Jackson Died

A lot of press has been devoted to the King of Pop's passing and it will probably be one of those events where people remember where they were when they heard the news (at least for a while). On the day Michael Jackson died I was attending another monthly meeting of The Dirty South Beer Club over in local Decatur. Indeed I will remember for some time how I was greeted at the door with the news that Michael Jackson had died. However, lest I forget some other events of the night they were documented in the lesser known, but still important, journalistic endeavors of Creative Loafing's Jeff Holland. This bit of news aired online six days following the now famous events of June 25th, but you may not have seen them between all the MJ coverage. Read it here!