The King of Fat

Someone please get me this book! Or better yet, someone just make me a few of the recipes in it! Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient (who wouldn't want to read this?!) argues that the quest for health has gone way too far. I agree! McLagan describes pork fat as the king of fat. I would like to believe that bacon fat in particular currently reigns! Recipes include a smoky bacon & squash soup and a slow-roasted pork belly. And she also answers my question with her spice cookie recipe that calls for bacon fat rather than butter. Fat is a beautiful thing...

Thanks to Pete LaCock for sending me the Times review.

I ♥ Pork Belly

As much as I love thin, crispy, traditional bacon I will occasionally indulge in it's thicker, fattier cousin. After all, fat = flavor!

A few weeks ago I had a porchetta plate at Porchetta (of course!) in the East Village. The heavily seasoned pork loin wrapped in pork belly was worth the cold walk over to Ave A. I also enjoyed a side of roasted potatoes with “burnt ends” which is basically chunks of crunchy, delicious pork skin. Mmmm...

Last night I had dinner at the izakaya restaurant Riki near Grand Central. Along with lots of other yummy Japanese small dishes, I ordered pork belly skewers. It was like thick bacon on a stick! Very similar to Korean bacon but I think I may have liked this even better.

BACON VERY IMPORTANT...

According to the Smoking Gun, Metallica’s tour rider specifies that “BACON VERY IMPORTANT THAT BACON BE AVAILABLE AT EVERY MEAL AND DURING THE DAY.” This is emphasized with all caps, asterisks and repeated three times throughout the document. Someone in the band is very serious about their bacon intake! Oddly, the fact that there are 6 strict vegetarians on their crew isn't called out in nearly as bold a manner. 

I think I'm going to start demanding bacon be present everywhere I go. 

Why, NY??

Why is the west coast getting all the bacon donut love?? In LA, Nickel Diner’s Maple-glazed Bacon donuts are making news. And lucky SFers can get Maple-glazed Bacon Apple donuts at Dynamo Donuts. Why didn't someone take me there when I was in SF in November? (Yeah, I'm talking to you ILWTR!) Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong—but it seems there are no bacon donuts in New York!

Please Don’t Wait

Last month I went to Please Don’t Tell to try their bacon-infused Benton’s Old Fashioned. I may have mentioned that reservations are hard to come by. A seat at the bar can be over an hour wait (although they will call your cell phone while you hang out in the neighborhood). My suggestion—make your own:

Bacon Explosion Unites All

This morning as I was reading the NY Times over the shoulder of a fellow subway rider, this article immediately caught my eye: Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. It is the story of the bacon and sausage concoction called the Bacon Explosion—which the Times claims has the ability to "to unite conservatives and liberals, gun owners and foodies, carnivores..." And really, can't we all use a little unity right now? If bacon can't achieve that, I don't know what can. Find the recipe here.

Bacon Cheeseburger Emergency

Some people will go to any lengths to get their bacon cheeseburger done right...

A 911 dispatcher tells an irate fast food customer, "Ma'am, we're not going to go down there and enforce your Western bacon cheeseburger." Someone should have told this crazy woman that you can't get the Western at Burger King.