22nd-28th June 2014
American comedian Penn Jillette once said “Bacon is so good by itself that to put it in any other food is an admission of failure. You’re basically saying, ‘I can’t make this other food taste good, so I’ll throw in bacon”
It’s a comment where most will sit on the fence and agree to disagree. Nothing beats the original crispy fried bacon…. But did we ever know how good bacon could taste when paired with food the majority would be too scared to try.
From the days where bacon never had an existence if breakfast time had ceased to the today where bacon is used widely in both sweet and savory dishes throughout the world.
So why do we love bacon so much?
Sure enough it’s a quick fix for a Sunday morning hangover covered in three inches of oil but is there really a lot more to bacon than first meets the eye? Throughout the world, the variety of bacon is endless with countries using different parts of the pigs anatomy to form its own type of cured meats.
United states are mad about their streaky bacon straight from the pig’s belly.
Europeans go crazy for their cubed lardons of pancetta used in antipastos and pastas
The British like their bacon straight off the pigs back
Whilst Australians tend to meet the Yanks and Poms in the middle and source their bacony goodness from the pigs middle section.
My fascination for bacon came to me one day whilst watching a TV show – United States of Bacon hosted by Todd Fisher.
At first I was left asking myself…. How can you have TV show based on bacon?
What happened next opened my eyes to a whole new bacon crazed world that only Americans live in.
The Americans are bacon crazy. Bacon is to Americans what red wine is to an alcoholic. What milk is to a baby! What grass is to a cow!
Studies out of the U.S show an average American eats 8.1kg of bacon a year.
I don’t know what I find crazier. That they actually eat that much bacon or if it is what they do with the bacon and the foods they marry it with.
Out go the days of simple fried bacon and enter the days of bacon ice cream, chocolate covered bacon, bacon milkshakes, bacon vodka, and bacon salt, just to name a few.
With new food trends out of the states hitting our shores on a weekly basis it’s no wonder why this fascination of bacon has led to having our own Australian Bacon Week.
Known for his out of this world desserts, one of the popular faces for Australian bacon week is Adriano Zumbo. Having made bacon macaroons and bacon donuts in the past years, 2014 is a year he will show off his more fancy side creating a bacon and crème fraiche mousse with strawberry anise sponge as a headline dish.
Starting on the 22nd of June for seven days One Hungry Human will be sharing with you one dish per day in which bacon can be used. Some dishes you might eat on a regular basis whilst some you never would have thought of trying in 100 years.
OHH would also like you to get into the spirit and share your favorite bacon dish.
Happy Australian Bacon Week!
OHH
onehungryhuman 
Loved it! Need the bacon ice cream recipe!