Bacon: Taking over Austin, Texas?

Have any of you seen Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?

The film's creator, Costa Dillon, graduated from the same place I got my Masters degree, UC Davis. (I'm sure there are a few degrees between us to Kevin Bacon somewhere). If you knew the reverence with which UC Davis regards its agricultural department, this fact would not surprise you.

Anyway, it occurred to me today that bacon (not Kevin) is establishing a similar reign over Austin, Texas. Whether that reign will continue as one of benevolence or one of terror is yet to be seen. Here are the facts:

• Gourdough's offers a Flying Pig donut, topped with maple syrup icing and bacon. I believe it is a distant - albeit classier - cousin of Sonic's pancake-and-sausage-on-a-stick.

• Whole Foods Market Downtown served, for a time last May, Dark Chocolate with Bacon and Marshmallows gelato. Which I tried, and it was really good.

• MisoHungry's Jennie Chen brought chocolate, bacon, and beer cupcakes to the first Bleet-Up back in July. Self also tried those, and found them incredibly delightful!
  

Photo credit: RomanReign.com

• Eat This Lens' Marshall Wright prepared bacon and chocolate chip cookies for a recent cookie swap, according to the Statesman's Addie Broyles.

• Frank on 4th and Colorado makes a drink called a "Red-Headed Stranger" (wink!) prepared with bloody mary mix, cheddar cheese, bacon, and bacon-infused Dripping Springs Vodka. Did you catch that? Bacon. Infused. VODKA.

Photo credit: BootsInTheOven.com

• A small gas station near my house, on the corner of 45th and Duval (not sure what the name is, but judging by the copious number of international flags hanging outside you might mistake it for a mini UN), sells bars of Vosges' "Mo's Bacon Bar," i.e. applewood-smoked bacon combined with milk chocolate.

• Big Top Candy Shop on South Congress sells chocolate-covered bacon. (Breathless reviews abound on Yelp.)

Photo credit: MoxyJane at Flickr.com

• Finally, this fact isn't specific to Austin, but NPR did a story earlier this month about bacon being the en vogue dessert ingredient. The same story includes a recipe for Peanut Butter Maple Bacon Fudge, which sounds both ridiculously unhealthy and KIND OF AMAZING.

My gorgeous and hilarious friend Anna recently wrote in an email, "I am so happy that even in a city full of health-conscious vegans (and the home to Whole Foods, no less!) that there is still a great appreciation of nature's fattiest and most delicious meat." Indeed! We do love bacon, it appears. Which presents an interesting gastronomic dichotomy between our ever-enduring vegans and raw foodies, and our newly-proud carnivores.

I've always been a salt-craving type of person, so these rather tasteful bacon creations would likely all be welcome to my palate. I wonder, though, if there are more over-the-top manifestations of the bacon craze that I just haven't heard of yet? Is any place in Austin cooking up bacon crème brûlée? Bacon bananas foster? Bacon-tinis? (Looking in your direction, Bill Norris).

If so, I would love to go A) eat it, and B) take a picture of it.

Speaking of pictures, I've been photographing things non-stop with my new Holga camera and can't wait to post some of the pics for you!! It feels like a little toy. The plastic-y "click" and manual "crank, crank" sound when I wind it haven't convinced me that it's actually capturing images, but that's probably because I'm a jaded 21st century photography consumer and only trust the near-silent magic of digital playthings. I halfway expect to open up my developed film roll next week at Precision, and instead of pictures, pull out ViewMaster slides of The Muppets or something.