The Fight Against Bacon Bastardization
April 13, 2012 § 3 Comments
Okay. This is getting out of hand. I like bacon as much as the next guy, but what is happening right now is not bacon. It’s bastardization.
Burger King is currently testing a bacon sundae. They’re doing this, because already on the market is the bacon maple sundae at Denny’s, and the bacon milkshake at Jack In the Box.
I know these places aren’t the epitome of fine dining. I know when the Double Down hit the market at KFC, I went to there. I doubled-down. Despite having a food blog, I have a fully capable and willing palette for low-brow tastes. But there needs to be some limits. There needs to be some quality control.
I have a co-worker who makes the best dark chocolate covered bacon I’ve ever had. The bacon was crisp and salty, the chocolate rich. The contrast of salty vs. sweet was perfect. When chocolate covered bacon came to the Indiana State Fair a couple years ago, I thought, “Okay. Cool. I’ll get some.” But what I got was nothing like my co-worker’s. The bacon was thin, under cooked, and refrigerated to keep the chocolate cold, so when you bit into it, it was like biting into a limp handshake covered in cheap chocolate.
This is not the kind of bacon we should be welcoming into our restaurants, into our hearts. There are true champions of bacon out there like The Smoking Goose and that dude who makes the bacon marmalade.
When bacon at chains like Denny’s and Burger King starts being used for anything other than their burgers and maybe crumbles on their salads, we should be outraged. We should say, “No.” We should say, “What you are doing is wrong. What you are doing is the Devil’s work.”
Please, everyone. I beg you. Don’t fall prey to the ails of ironic, bacon-laden marketing ploys. Please practice responsible bacon.
Amen to that. Bacon’s better than candy, but the trend to put it in/on everything should end swiftly for all of our sakes.
Preach.
I’m all about the bacon, baby. No doubt about that, but I agree that bacon has become one of Corporate America’s whore. Blasphemy, I say.