Photo of the Day: Canadian Bacon, eh?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Raymond's, City Market

So it's true! They do just call it BACON in Canada. No word on the geese though, eh.

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls

What is it about this time of year that makes me crave bacon, greasy fat, and nasty foods? I will NOT be making this recipe.

In the "What are they thinking?" category, from This Is Why We're Fat: Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks by Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley, which goes on sale October 27:

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe by Andy Phelan, Photos here:
Ingredients:

One (1) roll of ready-to-cook cinnamon rolls
One (1) container of cream cheese
One (1) container of bacon strips

Cook the bacon in a pan till one side is mostly done but not fully cooked through. Dry the bacon of grease, then slather the mostly cooked side of the bacon with cream cheese. Unroll the cinnamon rolls on a hard surface. Place the cream cheese slathered bacon into the unrolled cinnamon rolls. Roll the cinnamon rolls back up with the cream cheese bacon inside. Place the rolls on a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes at 350 F degrees. Remove from oven and top with icing provided in the cinnamon roll packaging.

This Is Why You're Fat: Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks by Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley grew out of a blog on Tumblr, which has been described as "an amazing community where things go viral really fast," in part because it takes only one click to re-blog something. Within two weeks of its start, the blog had millions of hits and is one of the top two or three blogs on Tumblr.

This Is Why You're Fat digs into what the authors call "the old stand-bys, the carnival foods of their childhoods, the sticky mess of a deep-fried candy bar, the indulgence of a greasy burger with all the fixin's."

Weird Foods

I am no Andrew Zimmern but I've had some slightly weird foods in my time.

• Blue corn fungus (thanks Jane);
• grilled cactus (thanks James);
• mako steak -- yup, mako, as in the shark (thank Jane's Dad);
• lime jello salads (thanks Utah Mormon upbringing);
• fry sauce (see above);
• mystery Communist era food in Moscow and Leningrad [as it was known then] (school trip); and the
• ubiquitous fruitcake, to name a few.

When I saw that the local gourmet deli next door was carrying the following chocolate bars again, I just had to buy one. Mo's Bacon Bar. You read that correctly .... Bacon. Chocolate. Bar.

See, here's the wrapper to prove it, and the link to the website.
It bears all of the hallmarks of a satisfactory experience; chocolate, salt, sugar, grease, and crunchy bacon bits.

Evidently, the "creator" of this mix saw the possibilities when she was a wee small thing:

"I began experimenting with bacon + chocolate at the tender age of 6, while eating chocolate chip pancakes drenched in Aunt Jemima® syrup, as children often do. Beside my chocolate-laden cakes laid three strips of sizzlin' bacon, just barely touching a sweet pool of maple syrup. And then, the magic—just a bite of the bacon was too salty and I yearned for the sweet kiss of chocolate and syrup, so I combined the two. In retrospect, perhaps this was a turning point; for on that plate something magical happened, the beginnings of a combination so ethereal and delicious that it would haunt my thoughts until I found the medium to express it—chocolate.

From there, it was just a matter of time…and what began as a love of salt and sweet quickly unraveled into an obsession. No sooner could I wait to unveil the royal coupling in solid bar form, a deep milk chocolate with bits and pieces of applewood smoked bacon and just a sprinkling of Alder salt. Really, what doesn't taste better with bacon?" –Katrina

What doesn't taste better with bacon? Indeed.
That Katrina is my kind of GENIUS.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite different from the imagined flavor sensation. A taste test in the office of about 6-7 brave people yielded mixed reviews. It was "okay," "surprisingly not bad," "interesting," etc. If I hadn't bought it and shared, most people would have kept passing it on by.

My humble opinion? More crunchy bacon please, less chocolate. For a real satisfactory PMS experience, I'd rather fry up a bunch of thick crunchy bacon, melt some semi-sweet chocolate and have a bacon fondue experience.

Now that sounds good.

Next up when I have more discretionary income? The Red Fire bar with cinnamon, ancho and chipolte chilis and dark chocolate.

Yo Krippy. I actually bought this to be part of your b-day present. Sorry it didn't get to you in Maine. If you want one (large or mini) or an assortment of the mini-bars, let me know.