About 10 years ago, a rebellion took place. A bacon rebellion.
Before that, indeed, hundreds of years before that, bacon was a much-loved food. But around the turn of the last decade, bacon mania took off, and shows no sign of slowing down.
According to Statista, a research service, 245.88 million Americans included bacon in their diet.
And bacon has moved on from simply a side at breakfast, a “b” in a BLT sandwich, or crumbled into bits and sprinkled on salads. There’s chicken-fried bacon. There’s chocolate-covered bacon. There’s even bacon-infused vodka.
Bacon itself is a complex thing. It comes thick cut. It comes smoked with applewood, hickory, mesquite and more. It’s flavored with such ingredients as brown sugar and molasses.
I’ve enjoyed these salt-cured pork strips in many dishes in Chesapeake and beyond. Here are five of my picks for you to get piggy with it, just in time for National Bacon Lovers Day on Aug. 20.
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Oysters Rockefeller: Bad Habits Wing & Oyster Bar
At Bad Habits Wing & Oyster Bar at Mount Pleasant Marketplace, a varied menu has a number of seafood-centric dishes, including the classic Oysters Rockefeller.
Available as a half-dozen or full-dozen, a large platter is filled with the bivalves, which consist of large oysters stuffed with the good stuff: spinach, bacon, and parmesan cheese before being broiled golden, brown, and delicious.
It’s a wonderful, and addictive, way to enjoy my favorite bivalves.
Bad Habits Wing & Oyster Bar is at 1464 Mt. Pleasant Road, Chesapeake. Call 757-842-6565 or visit www.facebook.com/BadHabitsWingAndOysterBar.
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City Scramble: City Deli
The breakfast menu at City Deli offers traditional favorites, such as breakfast plates with eggs and meats, as well as a number of breakfast sandwiches. But the City Scramble caught my eye.
In a ceramic skillet, three golden yellow scrambled eggs and home fries, bound by melting cheese, filled the dish. Mixed in was bacon, my choice of meat, and a generous assortment of onions, peppers, spinach, and tomatoes.All the flavors married beautifully in the City Scramble. The eggs were fluffy and a wonderful base for the other ingredients. The bacon was nice and crisp, and the vegetables sautéed until fork-tender. The blanket of cheese brought all the elements together.
City Deli is at 450 S. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake. Call 757-482-5554 or visit www.CityDeliVa.com.
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All Star Hash: d’Cracked Egg
One of our favorite breakfast bowls is the All Star Hash from d’Cracked Egg. Here a generous offering of eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, onion, peppers, and cheese. The freshness shines through in this scratch-made dish.
Hot from the kitchen, I dug into the bowl, trying to reach down deep and get a perfect forkful of each ingredient. The eggs were perfectly prepared, and the potatoes were tender and flavorful. Accents of the sage-y sausage and smoky bacon shined against the milder items, while the onions and peppers rounded things out with subtle sweetness.
Enrobing the All Star Hash was a thick coat of melting cheese, which helped bring all the flavors together while adding a creamy, slightly nutty flavor.
d’Cracked Egg Restaurant is at 2044 Atlantic Ave., Chesapeake. Call 757-543-3447 or visit www.facebook.com/dCrackedEggRestaurant.
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Western burger: The Egg Bistro
There’s a number of burgers on the menu at The Egg Bistro, with the Western being a standout.
Nestled in a soft brioche bun is a half-pound beef patty topped with melting cheddar, two fried onion rings, and crisp bacon. A sassy barbecue sauce enrobes the dish. You have to ask for lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle for the burger, which I always do.
It’s beautiful, beefy, barbecue-y, and bacon-y. Chips, fries or potato salad come on the side, but I like to substitute for Buffalo Cauliflower for a nominal charge.
There are two The Egg Bistro locations in Virginia Beach.
The Egg Bistro is at 501 Kempsville Road, Chesapeake. Call 757-410-8515 or visit www.TheEggBistro.com.
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Club sandwich: Lockside Bar and Grill
I love a good club sandwich, a delicious offering that is essentially a classic BLT on steroids. At Lockside Bar and Grill, their club sandwich fits the bill, and is a wonderful platform for bacon.
Here bacon, ham, and turkey are stacked high along with both American and Swiss cheeses as well as lettuce and tomato. Mayo comes on the sandwich, but I left it off.
Handhelds come with fries or slaw, and I find the fries to be the perfect accompaniment.
Lockside Bar and Grill is at 200 N. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake.
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Recipe: Miller and Rhoads Missouri Club Sandwich
It was a sad day in Virginia in 1990 when one of the South’s great department stores, Miller & Rhoads, closed after 105 years of serving customers.
In its tearoom, one of the signature items was the Missouri Club, eaten by white-gloved ladies wielding knives and forks while watching midday fashion shows.
Bacon is a wonderful, smoky addition to this decadent dish, a rich, substantial sandwich smothered in cheese sauce and broiled. My recipe is inspired by the original and appears in my book, “Dishing Up Virginia.”
Make the cheese sauce: Preheat the oven to broil. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour until smooth, then stir in 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, 1/8 teaspoon paprika, 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard and a dash of hot sauce
Whisk in 1 cup milk, about 1/4 cup at a time and stirring constantly, until the mixture reduces and thickens, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and mix in 2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, about 1⁄2 cup, and 2 ounces shredded Colby cheese, about 1⁄2 cup, adding the cheeses about 1/4 cup at a time and stirring constantly until the cheeses melt and incorporate into the mixture, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Make the club sandwich: On 4 individual oven proof plates, place a slice of toast on each and evenly layer with 6 thinly sliced pieces of roasted turkey, 6 thinly sliced pieces of country ham, and two tomato slices. Top each with a slice of bread and spoon the cheese sauce over the top, dividing it equally among the 4 sandwiches. Top each with a slice of cheddar cheese.
Broil the sandwiches until the cheese is bubbly and the top is slightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the sandwiches and crisscross two slices of cooked bacon on top of each. Garnish each sandwich with 2 large green green olives with pimento speared with toothpicks. Sprinkle on a dash of paprika, and serve immediately.
Makes 4 sandwiches.
Patrick Evans-Hylton, [email protected]
