Top 10 Ways Bacon Makes Any Dish Better

By Dave Faries Tue., Sep. 1 2009 at 2:24 PM

Categories: Lists

Patrick Michels

Do you know this bacon? If not, read on...

When we found out about a National Bacon Day, some of us fell into a near fugue state. Finally--a nation fixed on celebrating, oh, labor and presidents and fat elves and the greeting card/chocolates industry found something worthwhile to honor.

No need to rhapsodize about bacon. Nature's most perfect food translates into almost any culinary language (speck, pancetta, Canadian) and takes to just about any form of curing, from air dried to applewood smoked. Fans can join bacon of the month clubs or the Royal Bacon Society. There's even turkey bacon for those not allowed to eat the real stuff.

And the federal bacon holiday? Well, unfortunately it falls on Saturday this year. As celebrity spokesperson and hog meat advocate Homer Simpson says, "mmm..."--eh, you've heard it a thousand times.

So, drawing on the best bacon-related dishes served in Dallas restaurants, we present the top 10 ways bacon makes any dish better. You can...

10. Wrap it around something otherwise useless
Baja chicken, Mattito's

Patrick Michels

We're not quite sure what makes this appetizer so Baja. Chicken? Well, you find bland white meat everywhere. Monterey Jack is native to grocery aisles. Maybe it's the jalapeno. But the point is clear: take three common ingredients and wrap them in bacon, you have a popular item. Same goes for other useless things, such as corn on the cob, tangelos, maybe even Almond Joy.

9. Use it to make stale bread edible
Warm bread salad, DiTerra's Urban Italian
OK, so they use pancetta here. But they fry it up like good old American strips--and the warm, tart, meaty flavor easily turns a tossing of greens and past its prime bread into one brilliant salad. No way you could get the same results with fish sticks, chicken fingers or sausage patties.

8. Serve it with eggs
Berkshire bacon & over EZ egg, Neighborhood Services
Yeah, yeah--obvious. At least Nick Badovinus' restaurant has the guts to serve this breakfast classic at dinnertime.

7. Serve it with duck eggs
Bacon and eggs, Abacus
Why limit yourself to the basics? Abacus and its celebrity chef, Kent Rathbun, marries Niman Ranch bacon (cured with chipotle for an earthy bite) to scrambled duck eggs. Not much different in taste between one egg and another--we know, but we don't care. Rathbun takes things a step further by scraping on some truffles.