Omnivore Atlanta

It’s almost – no – it’s very cliché now, to exalt the properties of the pig. There are many restaurants that should simply be called pig bars. And chefs like Kevin have replaced dragons, skulls, and Japanese body art with charts of the animal’s anatomy.

But, why?

For the most part, of course, it’s flavor. The smokiness.  The salt.  But, mainly, it’s the fat. Where other animals’ fat can take on an unpleasant texture, especially cold, the pig yields melting lusciousness, almost all the time.

For that reason, it’s irreplaceable.

Emeril was right (even if I cringe while typing it). Pork fat rules!

Bacon however… is overrated.

This declaration has already landed me on a few blog’s hit lists, but I feel rather adamant about it. (more…)

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I happened to browse through the June issue of Men’s Journal at the barbershop today and noticed an article about the 30 best neighborhoods in America. Writer Jonathan Lerner penned the Atlanta entry and bestowed the award on the Old Fourth Ward. The article featured a photo of Lotta Frutta, the kinky little cafe at 590 Auburn Ave.

The article isn’t online yet, but I did find a couple of other manly foodie items. There’s a brief piece on Chef David Conn’s version of the  “Bacon Explosion” at New York’s Channel 4 pub. He serves slices of the artery-clogger on slider buns. Perhaps Lance Gummere of the Shed on Glenwood could adopt the recipe for his Wednesday night menu of various sliders for $3 each.

The magazine’s May issue featured a piece about hunting and cooking wild boar in South Carolina. Author Manny Howard opens with a scene that would titillate Michael Vick:

“Manny, if this is gonna happen, it’s gonna have to happen very soon,” Allan Boyd, our guide, calls from the opposite bank of a five-foot-wide canal, where the water is so black there’s no telling how deep it is. With both hands he’s gripping the left hind leg of a 200-pound Russian boar sow. Cornered between two cypress, the pig hammers back at the four hunting dogs attacking it. One of them has locked onto its snout. With a vigorous, elliptical sweep of its broad neck and shoulders the sow swings the dog high above its head and slams it savagely onto the cypress roots on the swamp floor. The dog doesn’t loosen its grip. This happens four more times, even as the three other dogs tear at the boar’s face and ears. Now Boyd is annoyed: “Manny, these dogs are getting hurt. They’ve been up on her too long.”

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A team of Atlanta restaurateurs are planning to open a high-end restaurant that would be America’s first all-bacon establishment.

Called “Bacon-alia,” the eatery would feature a wide variety of bacon-based appetizers, entrees and deserts. “Bacon-alia is a concept whose time has come,” says chef/owner James Gammon. “With bacon mania sweeping America, it’s both a beloved comfort food and the ultimate indulgence.”

While Gammon expects that entrees like the bacon-wrapped Canadian bacon or the Bacturduckencon (a bacon-stuffed chicken in a duck in a turkey encased in bacon) will become signature dishes, he emphasizes that bacon is not the only foodstuff on the menu. “Of course not. That would be crazy. But we’ve put our own spin – or ‘baconized’ – some old standbys. Instead of Green Salad Sprinkled with Bacon Bits, we offer Bacon Bits Sprinkled with Green Salad. The Bacon-alia BLT is a classic bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, only we substitute thick sheets of bacon for the bread – and spread plenty of Baconaisse on top.”

In general, diners should expect that everything on the menu will be either wrapped in bacon, stuffed with bacon, or both. Meals feature “Bacon Water” and will be topped off with bacon-flavored Altoids. Although the menu includes Japanese and Korean-style bacon recipes, most of the dishes come from the United States, including the “Pig Candy” dessert, slices of bacon broiled with brown sugar.

“And just wait until you see what we’ve done with fatback!” says Gammon.

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Bacon, as you undoubtedly know, is enjoying a renaissance despite its reputation as an artery-clogging, heart-stopping indulgence full of carcinogenic nitrates. Yum!

Mike Nelson, the host of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” is out to prove that man can eat bacon and live long and prosper. He is eating nothing but bacon throughout the month of February:

For the entire month of February, 2009, I, Michael J. Nelson will eat nothing but bacon. Nothing, my friends, but bacon. Why? Because bacon is nature’s finest and most nourishing food. Also, because several doubters on the RiffTrax staff had the unmitigated gall to insult bacon by making the outrageous claim that, as good as it is, no one could eat very much of it and live. I can and will. Therefore I will spend the month proving it….

Now for the fine print: “Bacon” shall hereafter refer to the cured and smoked fatty cuts of pork, either back, side or belly. In other words “American bacon”. No “Canadian bacon”, which is really just lunchmeat. No pork chops. No turkey bacon. No “tofacon” or any such horror. Just bacon. No condiments allowed. No syrups, or hot sauces, or pureed vegetables in the form of ketchup. No sauces at all. Just nature’s finest bacon, all by its dignified self. I am making allowances for the following beverages: beer, wine, martinis and water. No juices, no V8, nothing that could be construed as “healthy”. This is somewhat arbitrary, I grant you, but one bit of madness at a time, is my reasoning.

You can read his reports on the Riff Trax Blog. Just click on bacon in the “categories” column to the left of Nelson’s initial post announcing the plan.

(H/T to JoeMyGod. Graphic courtesy of The End of Thought)

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