Mmmm, Bacon!

God made bacon because he loves us and wants us to be happy.

Yes, I’m still an agnostic. Don’t be such a literalist — the point of that statement is obvious: bacon is wonderful.

I made spaghetti carbonara for dinner last night, and it reminded me of how much I do love bacon. In a normal week, I stop at having three strips of it at breakfast on Saturday, but that’s just because I also love my arteries and don’t wish to clog them any more than I already do.

The wonderfulness of bacon has made the news in a number of ways recently. For example, a 115-year-old woman enjoys bacon regularly. If it’s good enough for the oldest person in the United States, it’s good enough for me! Of course, she has forsworn alcohol, cigarettes, and sex. Hmm. I’m not a smoker ….

Speaking of alcohol, the Brits have shown that bacon sandwiches cure hangovers. Thanks, British scientists! That is most welcome information.

Closer to home, an undisclosed location near San Francisco was the site of the recent Bacon Camp. I love this article because it mentions bacon-flavored dental floss, links to a recipe for bacon ice cream, has pictures of bacon sculpture, and shows buttons with amusing bacon-related slogans. Missing, however, was “bacon is a vegetable,” which appeared on a t-shirt in the most recent season of Top Chef.

Finally, would Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes have won a challenge on Top Chef? Maybe, maybe not. But if you want to try them at home, here is the recipe. I’ve had a peanut butter cupcake with bacon bits in the frosting, and it was awesome. I wonder if chocolate would be as good. Maybe I should make these and find out.

Reality TV: Top Chef, The Bachelor, and American Idol

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I have a predilection towards so-called “reality TV.” I think “unscripted” is a better term, although even that term is too kind for some shows.

The fifth season of Top Chef ended this week, and although I love the show, I was disappointed with the season overall. I thought this was a relatively weak group of chefs compared to previous seasons, and many of the stronger chefs fizzled, burnt out, or otherwise had issues. My two favorites from the cast were Carla Hall, who came in third, and Fabio Viviani, who came in fourth. Both had strong, vivid personalities and distinctive cooking styles. In a more realistic environment, where they can think about menus, test recipes before serving them, and work out the kinks if something isn’t perfect, I imagine them to be beyond excellent. I would love to eat their cooking! So a “hootie-hoo” to Carla and a “grazie” to Fabio for making the season more entertaining and giving me someone to care about. I’m already looking forward to the next iteration of Top Chef.

By contrast, we have the complete and utter mess known as The Bachelor. One would expect that a so-called reality TV show would keep to its premise about 90% of the time, but in this case, one would be wrong. The level of manipulation on this show is so deep, it makes you wonder why they don’t just hire actors — except they have done that, with mixed results. Anyway, this latest season has sunk to new depths. Fortunately, Reality Steve explains it all to you. If you want to see the sordid underside of “reality” TV, Steve will lift up the rock and show you all the dirty, squirming vermin. This show is as much about romance as a kitten is about quantum physics.

Then there’s American Idol. I don’t care what is or isn’t manipulated on that show. I keep it on mute most of the time, except when there’s singing by someone who’s competent or better. Then I wait for them to release their music after the show. One former contestant with a new CD is Melinda Doolittle. Remember her? Back-up singer with a big voice and an overly-humble attitude? I don’t know about the attitude, but she’s still got the big voice. Her soul and R&B CD, Coming Back to You, is great! I’m listening to it right now, and I love it. I took the chance and bought the whole CD instead of doing individual downloads, and I’m glad I did because I would choose to download 11 of the 13 selections. If you want to download some sample cuts, my favorites are Walkin’ Blues, If I’m Not in Love, and Dust My Broom. Enjoy!

Sunday Miscellany

Oh, it’s been an eventful weekend!

First, I’d like to give a photo credit to my friend Beth, who took the picture of Priscilla in the “about” section in the upper right-hand corner of this page. You can check Beth’s other photos at her Flickr page. And speaking of cats, Eddie is doing great! Here’s the latest picture of him, hiding under the “don’t bother me” chair:

We all need a place to hide at times, right?

Next, Dave’s car died. We were driving along yesterday morning when all sorts of warning lights started going on. I was almost afraid to look, but when I did, I saw that even the speedometer wasn’t functioning. So he had it towed to the dealer, and they sent him over to the rental car place for a loaner, where they fixed him up with this:

I call it the “Darth Vader-mobile.” Look, if he were a landscaper or a painter or a carpenter, or if he lived in the country and had a farm, this might be a perfectly suitable vehicle. But Dave’s an attorney living in a close-in suburb of Washington DC. Under the circumstances, this thing is nothing short of hilarious.

Finally, as stated in a previous post, I thought this last season of Top Chef was nothing short of awesome. And yesterday evening we met some friends at the burger joint run by the family of Spike Mendelsohn (sp?) from last season: Good Stuff Eatery. Spike himself was there, as was his dad, and I have to say, the food was excellent. They’re planning to turn Good Stuff into a chain, and I hope they succeed. I had a soda, large Village Fries, and the Patty Melt, all for about $11. Spike made the Village Fries on Top Chef and got wild praise for them from the judges. They were, without question, the best fries I’ve ever had. So the question is, had I not seen the show or had Spike not gone on the show in the first place, what would I think of the food? I would still think it was awesome, and I’d still think the fries were the best I’ve ever had. The burger might be up there in the top 3 I’ve ever had, and it’s definitely the best I’ve had recently, but I don’t eat a lot of burgers. I was fully prepared to say “over-rated,” but that’s absolutely not true. So if you ever end up in Washington DC on Capitol Hill and want a good, reasonably priced meal with the best fries you’ll ever eat, try Good Stuff.

A Restaurant, a Cookbook, and a TV Show

I am a huge fan of the TV show Top Chef, and I was really torn between wanting Stephanie Izard and Richard Blais* to win Season 4, which ended last night. Stephanie claimed the title, and the only thing wrong with that was that Richard didn’t win as well. (Too bad he didn’t compete in Season 2, he would have blown those clowns away.) So congrats to Stephanie, and may she and Richard have successful careers making beautiful food for the rest of us. I look forward to buying their cookbooks someday, and maybe dining at their restaurants.

For a bit more info on Richard, see the comments below. And I have been misspelling his last name, which is Blais, not Blaise. Oops. I did get a lot of hits from people who made the same misspelling, so I’m keeping the tag for the benefit of the misspellers. Fellow misspellers, if you Google “Richard Blais”, you will get the info you seek. Here is the link to his website.

And the first Top Chef cookbook is out! It’s really half cookbook, half show chronicle. I recommend it to one and all.

Away from the television and my fantasies of making television food, I have discovered a new Ethiopian restaurant. If you are unfamiliar with Ethiopian food, here’s what you need to know: it’s different. It tends to be spicy, often but not always hot, and there are no utensils. You eat it by tearing off bits of ”injera”, a spongy pancake, and using the injera to pick up bits of food. Anyway, Meaza has won great praise as an “authentic” Ethiopian restaurant in the Washington DC suburbs. Dave and I were there for about an hour and 15 minutes the other night, and for the first 45 minutes everyone else in the place appeared to be Ethiopian immigrants. The food was exceptional, especially the lamb tibs, which we will definitely order again. With two beers, one salad, and two entrees, we paid about $40 plus tip, so it was also reasonably priced. I can’t wait to go back!