Despite a comment or two asking me to write on healthy topics, well, I confess. I am not going to hear. I am going to write about. . . bacon. I love bacon. More generally, I love pork. I confess. I do. In almost any form (though I do have some trouble with offal and . . . . ). But, I love pork and I especially love bacon. I used to say that I could only eat it when I was traveling as it is (of course) unhealthy. But hey, I just eat it. I do. (Not to mention pork belly and. . . .) And yes, all this reveals many religions that I do NOT practice.
The excuse for this rant on my love for bacon? A book with a perfect title: I Love Bacon. Written by Jayne Rockmill (and published by Andrews McMeel who sent it to me for free), the cookbook brings together bacon uses for every single possible course in a meal. The recipes come from various chefs (and thus various restaurants) and range across such possibilities as:
**chocolate-bacon cupcakes (trust me; I have had bacon chocolate bars that are wonderful)
**bacorn (bacon-caramel popcorn with chile-spiked peanuts)
to somewhat more traditional possibilities like bluefish with corn, avocado and bacon salad, and more fusion-like options such as crispy pork belly stir-fry with rice noodles and thai basil. The cookbook teaches you how to transform pork belly into bacon in both classic forms, spicy braised forms, and soy-ginger forms. This is a very dangerous book.
Besides being entitled I Love Bacon -- and featuring bacon recipes of all sorts of wonders -- part of the book's proceeds go to the Food Bank of New York City and Share Our Strength.
For an interview with Jayne Rockmill, click here. for a review on a website we all should know about (The Republic of Bacon), click here. And there are so so so so many blogs on bacon as a food, it was hard to choose. Did you know there was a word (yep, neologism) baconista? (It is associated with this blog.) Anyway, this blog is anpother one I actually found less overwhelming than too many of the others; why be overwhelmed? Eat bacon. Or pork belly. Or. . . .
And don't feel guilty (as I do), check out this site arguing it might be . . . healthy??!???!?!?!
