Bringing Home The Bacon

You know, it's been a while since I've done a post that whetted your appetite, and I thought that I would use this space to do a post all about a particular food.

Specifically, a food that everyone seems to love.

(Well, everyone that isn't a vegetarian, vegan, or Jewish, that is.)

It is a food item that seems to go best with eggs at breakfast.  It's the B in the BLT.  And in recent years, this food item has been used in the creation of mouth watering desserts.

Yes, today we're going to celebrate the power of bacon.

I'll be the first to admit.  I like bacon.  I like bacon a lot.  I remember way back when I was a little kid, it was considered a treat to have bacon for breakfast.  At the time I was a kid, bacon was ridiculously expensive (and sadly as of 2015, it is even more ridiculously expensive than ever before), and we didn't have it very often.  But when we did, I always had a few slices of it for breakfast.

And I always had a little bit of ketchup on the side of the plate for dipping purposes.  I know some may find that to be gross, but I liked it.  There was just something about the ketchup that made the naturally smoky flavour of bacon pop even more on the taste buds.

Of course, as I grew older, I found that bacon didn't necessarily mean that you had to only have it for breakfast.  It was just as delicious for lunch and dinner as well.  Those bacon wrapped filet mignon steaks that you might buy at the supermarket?  Absolutely delicious.  And yes, I always peeled the bacon off the steak before I ate the steak itself. 

Back in the days in which I used to eat a lot of fast food, I always liked getting the Bacon Double Cheeseburger from Burger King or a Baconator from Wendy's.  Mind you, eating that greasy food probably helped kill my gall bladder over the years, but at the time, they were so worth it. 

Though, I have to admit...there's a pizza place right near where I live now that has a Canadian style pizza that has little slices of bacon and mushrooms as toppings, and I can't get enough of it.  It's definitely worth the splurge.

(That pizzeria is Milano's, which is a chain of pizzerias in Southeastern Ontario, which is where I live.  If you are in the area, do check them out.  The pizza sauce alone is amazing!)

So, yes, bacon is a delicious food.  And in recent years, bacon has become one of the most popular ingredients to use in coming up with new concepts for old favourites.

For instance, I just saw a commercial for another pizza place (I want to say that it was Little Caesar's, but it could have been Papa John's.  Apparently the SPIKE channel has every pizza commercial ever made), and one of their new products is a pizza with bacon wrapped crust.

Just picture it.  Bacon wrapped crust pizza.  Could this be the most incredible innovation to pizza since the invention of stuffed crust pizza?  I know one thing.  I'd try it at least once.

But one thing I probably wouldn't go for are the number of bacon flavoured desserts that seemingly pop up out of nowhere.

Well, okay, that's a lie.  I did try one.  Remember a few years back when Burger King came out with the bacon ice cream sundae?  It was more or less a hot fudge sundae topped with bacon bits.  Sounds pretty gross, right? 

Well, just to satisfy my curiosity, I did try one.  It is surprisingly edible.  There's just something about hot fudge and bacon mixed together that makes it seem quite...nice.  It's like one of those May-December romances that you might see.  On paper, it should not work.  But when you see it in action, you think...wow, they're really good together.

Of course, I draw the line at bacon milkshakes.  Now that just sounds like a heart attack in a glass.  A really disgusting tasting one at that.

Oh, and don't forget all of the foods that have artificial bacon flavouring to them as well.  I know that we should all limit our intake of processed food, but I can't help but eat almost a whole box of Bacon Dippers crackers if I happen to come across them.

Smokey bacon potato chips are also just as fantastic.

And, I suppose that you could use the scent and flavour of bacon on inedible products as well.  I'm really surprised that the good people who work for Mr. Sketch markers haven't come up with a bacon scented marker yet.  I imagine that somewhere in the world are perfumes, shampoos, and deodorants that have a hint of bacon scent.  It wouldn't surprise me if there were bacon flavoured lip balm available.  But, maybe it's a good thing that there isn't.  With some people's love of bacon, we might have several gals in the emergency room complaining of abrasions and bite marks on their lips.

I even remember watching an episode of "Bones" where Hodgins and Oliver were working on a case and somehow ingested some bacon-flavoured lubricant!

Now, wouldn't THAT be something?