Bacon, Bacon, Bacon!

"Bacon Love," Mike Geno

I love bacon. I love bacon so much I would eat it on anything. Literally, anything. I was putting bacon in caramel and ice cream sundaes before I ever saw it on the food network or ate it in a restaurant. People thought I was crazy, but bacon makes EVERYTHING better. Cliche, but so true.

My next step in life, call it the "bucket list" of cooking, will be to make my own bacon. I found a great, easy recipe from Saveur to cure my own bacon. Can't wait to try it.

Have you ever tried making bacon before? Tell me how it went!

Mozz now serves lunch... even better.

Everyone knows how much I love Mozz, and I was really disappointed when they opened with a dinner-only service. Not because their dinner wasn't amazing, but because I'd like to take my parents and they eat at, like, 5 PM every day, 6 on the weekends. So, no dice for those two.

But I learned they just opened on July 11th for lunch service. No one had to twist my arm to visit. If you love Mozz for dinner, try it for lunch! The menu is just as amazing, filled with sandwiches, paninis, and subs. They've even tweaked some of their dinner entrees into uber-affordable lunch portions (or in some cases, nearly the same serving size as dinner but at 1/3 the price). I had an insanely delicious grilled chicken panini stuffed with jalepeno/mint pesto, benton's bacon, greens, mozzarella and who really needs to hear more than that??!!


Anyone free for lunch tomorrow?

Burgers, burgers and more burgers

I love burgers and consider myself somewhat of a burger connoisseur. So I got really excited when I read that Bon Appetit will be posting their favorite burgers - one each day until they decide they've named them all - on their Facebook page.

So I guess I have a new fan page to "like." First up? The Onion Burger from Sid's Diner in El Reno, OK. A burger patty with caramelized onions smashed into it, then seared on the flat top. Sounds like a good start to me.

(And where the eff is El Reno? Sounds like a road trip to me.)
(Oh, and in case you wanted another reason to follow Bon Appetit, they are giving away a trip to Paris to one of their Facebook fans. Sounds like a fair trade to me.)

Sometimes I wish I'd taken French, not Spanish (Ghyslain)

I think most of my friends know by now that I'm in love with most of the new restaurants popping up in the Germantown/Butchertown/NULU districts. I tend to lean towards American and Latin comfort food, probably because that's what I love to cook at home, but I do love the more upscale spots as well. I had the opportunity to stop in at Ghyslain on Market for lunch, and let me tell you, while I may not know how to pronounce the name (debatable), Ghyslain offers some seriously good eats.

My sister and I strolled in on a Saturday early afternoon, just beating the late brunch crowd and were stopped by a menu with a fantastic array of options. We'd already known about Ghyslain's fabulous desserts, thanks to our Momma's designer Easter Egg baskets (Ghyslain creates the most extraordinary chocolates, we still have two large hand-painted bunnies that are too pretty to eat). But I had no clue the lunch menu would look so tasty and I had a very hard time choosing.

B.Blaze and I chose to "split" two sandwiches - which really means that we each just get a bite and only continue sharing if we're equally pleased with the other's choice - and we couldn't have chosen a more opposite pairing. I delved in to an espresso BBQ pork sandwich on brioche (duh, favorite) with leak scalloped potatoes. Beth opted for the curry chicken wrap with mint cole slaw. We both were craving beet salad but alas they were all out of beets (that only creates a perfect excuse to make the 2 minute trek back for more food at a later date).

Beth's curry was good, albeit a little sloppy to eat, and the slaw was fresh and bright. My BBQ was topped with melted provolone and caramelized onions, and while I'm used to extra sauce on my BBQ, this didn't need any. The real show stopper was the leek scalloped potatoes. Served nestled in an individual-size baker dish, I had the sudden urge to run to the grocery on the way home and start making potato casseroles. So amazing, perfectly seasoned, and, surprisingly, just as homey and comforting on a 90 degree Summer lunch is it would be on a 40 degree Winter supper.

We finished our meal with a refreshing mango tartlet and a couple handmade Chambord and key lime chocolates. The salads and soups floating by towards other patrons looking equally as delicious as everything we'd tried.

I will be looking for any excuse to go back, and I might just walk away with only beet salad and scalloped potatoes. I'd be just fine with that.

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Ghyslain on Market
FKS Scale (1-10): 9
Pros: leek scalloped potatoes; French inspired BBQ; mint slaw; beautiful desserts and chocolates
Cons: some items may seem pricey, but the flavors are worth it; those itty bitty diet coke bottles for $2.50; wanting to try everything

Love me some southern food (Doc Crows)

One of the biggest perks of my job is that I work closely with food innovation professionals; these are the best people to eat with because they'll try anything and their expense accounts are enormous. $200 lunches for two? Sure. $700 dinners for four? Whatever. It's a pretty sweet gig. I was privileged enough to try Doc Crows with one of my foodie friends and, cumulatively, I think we ordered a third of the menu.

Wilbur Sundae

We tried a little of everything: fried oysters, pork rinds, fried soft-shell crab, brisket tacos, fried chicken, and a hamburger. The hamburger was made with a mixture of three cuts of beef and it was incredibly flavorful - didn't even need ketchup (which says a lot for me as I often order a burger as an excuse to eat ketchup). The brisket tacos were delicious and probably my favorite of the entrees we tried. I'd like to note that they serve many of their sandwiches on brioche, at some times overwhelming the internal components (for instance, hamburger didn't fill the bun), but definitely a delicious choice for those who love the buttery, fluffy texture. Count me in that group. Also, the condiment of choice for nearly everything on the menu is the house-made remoulade, which I loved so much I order a pint to take home (charged me $2, best deal ever). I literally could eat it on anything.

The highlight of the meal (in addition to the tasty pork rinds) was the Wilbur sundae. This rich confection was comprised of praline ice cream, bourbon caramel, cinnamon sprinkled pork rinds and candied bacon. It was plenty for the three of us and for $5 you can't beat that deal, expense account or not. Definitely a must try for people who like me who love bacon on anything!

Overall, the menu delivers enough variety for any type of southern grub you could crave.
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Doc Crow's Southern Smokehouse & Raw Bar
FKS Scale (1-10): 8
Pros: great sampling of southern food; remoulade on everything; brioche on everything; fresh pork rinds; candied bacon; foodie expense accounts
Cons: weird shop-cloth napkins; parking;

Deep-fried crunchy pork-fat goodness

So, I ate at Doc Crows today for lunch and the meal was great (full-post coming), but the clear star of the show for me were the fresh pork rinds. Pork rinds, cracklins and chicharrones are very similar in that they are made of fried pork skin with varying degrees of fat and cooking techniques. Essentially, they are like the identical triplets of the culinary world: oft-confused and you can tell them apart because one's a little chubbier than the other two.

I digress. I loved these pork rinds so much that I ate them twice today... as in I ate them at lunch and ordered two to-go boxes full of them for later. Cinnamon-sugar and the traditional kind with a kick of heat. I wanted to save them for an after-work snack ("gorge" may be the more appropriate term).

Only problem is I accidentally left them at work and got all the way home without them. So I did what any other FKS-stricken person would do. I drove all the way back to work to get them.

Hello? Top Chef finale and fresh pork rinds? Duh, winning!

(The End)

Planning my next work trip around food... typical.

One of the major perks of work travel is that I can use them as an excuse to try new restaurants I've heard or read about. Usually I've got a handful of options in the holster in case I get the inevitable, "Sarah, what would you like to eat for dinner?" question. Or, if I'm by myself, its even better... I don't have to feel bad about driving 30 minutes out of the way in order to try something no one else wants to eat.

I'm heading out to Sac-town next week and was super excited to catch an episode of triple D's featuring all Sacramento restaurants. I have to try the Dad's burger at Dad's Kitchen. It does something awesome with burgers that I've never quite seen before. They take what looks to be a 4 inch ring mold and layer in the burger toppings with the meat, smashing them into basically one thick burger patty. And they layer in yummy goodies like bacon and blue cheese.

hard to see that bacon crust, but it is there

A patty that is one side ground beef, one side crispy flat-top-cooked bacon and cheese?

Yeah, I think I'd drive out of the way for that.