A City In Love With Meat - Baconfest Chicago
Yes, they had those there... Along with bacon belts, and all sorts of other odd items that are themed around bacon. Oh yeah, have you heard of the bacon iPhone case?
Many items were available that involved the common element of BACON! (See the toothpicks back there?!)
Either way, this whole adventure started when one day I posted about how fun it would be if there was an actual festival that focussed on bacon on twitter. I immediately got a response that there actually WAS a baconfest in Chicago and that such an event was coming up again this April. I quickly found out who was organizing it and got ready to purchase these tickets to experience something new. My cousin was supposed to accompany us, but unfortunately, couldn't make it due to being overseas over the weekend. So that left it all up to me. And believe me, I was all ready to pull the trigger and purchase these tickets if anything, just to witness a culture of bacon loving maniacs have at it!
So as the day came when we had to purchase the tickets, quickly whipped out my credit card the minute they went on sale and it was a success. Apparently, all tickets were sold out within 10-15 minutes of being available. Just like Lady GaGa tix I see...
Let me rewind a little bit. The purchase of tickets for this event was also to surprise my wife with something fun to do in the city for her birthday. (or maybe that's just what I tell coworkers and friends) It was a complete surprise and she thought of it as 'Iron Chef' with the secret ingredient as BACON!! A food tasting event where you definitely looked forward to each and every component of the meal simply because it utilized your favorite ingredient!
The event was split into two shifts, we went to the afternoon shift as Tara isn't too keen on waking up early on a Saturday (well.. if she knew bacon was involved, she may have but I didn't want to risk it). The second shift had gourmet dishes provided by the following Chicago area restaurants along with what they brought to the show: FULL MENU PDF LINK
Some of my favorites...
Lula Cafe
Texas Millionaire Hominy consisting of Lula's own house-made bacon, pork belly from Gunthrop Farms, hominy from 3 Sisters Garden, jalapeno peppers, and Prairie Breeze cheddar Cheese
The Purple Pig
Spring Pea Bacon and Pecorino Salad
Thte desserts were the best!
Atwood Cafè
Bacon-Snickers Bar
Chalkboard
Vanilla Bacon Ice Cream with Aji Amarillo Caramel Sauce with Bacon Cotton Candy
The venu was littered with EVERYTHING bacon! Bacon drinks (Bakon Vodka, and bloody marys), ipod cases, variants of dishes to eat featuring bacon, seasonings, people (yes people came dressed as bacon), even PERFUME! So ladies, if you want to spark that romance in your man... here's your chance! Promptly then at 3pm, Tara and I headed up to the banquet room where we then began to indulge. Twas a great day in Logan Square!
One of the best things were all the samples that were available!
I just HAD to get a bag of these. They were sooo good!
With this, everything can/will taste like bacon.
See, bacon in a cupcake... and it was good.
After going through many of the vendors, it was time to move on to the best part... the eating!
This was one of my favorite stops by the way...
Chefs in Action:
Another favorite stop for us!
Bacon Tacos:
Bacon Ice Cream!
Quil Egg! A great take on the bacon and eggs concept!
There was even a man dressed as bacon! A TRUE fan!
Upon leaving the Stan Mansion, feeling full and ready for a nap, we looked back and were thankful to be a part of this great / fun event.
Some bacon poetry...
"Star Spangled Bacon"
Oh say can you see
Frying glistening glory
Red white and fatty
Until next time...