Monroe County Fair '08

Last night we went to this year's Monroe County Fair. It was very similar to last year's where we saw a rodeo.

This time we started off looking at all the animals. There were exhibits of all sorts of poultry, horses, cows, sheep etc. (In keeping with the rural theme, the ketchup and mustard for the hot dogs was dispensed from cow's udders.) We noticed that, just like last year, at the rabbit exhibition there were different breeds of rabbit, including some labelled as "single fryer", "roaster" and "stew". So I encouraged Cindy to go to the horse pavilion and ask, "If these are all riding horses, do you have separate exhibits for the draught- and meat-horses?" But she didn't want to offend anyone so she refused to do it.

This year we we a little more adventurous with the American carnival food. Last year we tried a funnel cake, which Cindy ordered again this year and we also tried a similar item known as an elephant ear.

But that wasn't the most interesting part. The most disgusting American delicacy that we tried was the deep-fried Oreos (sic.). That wasn't all, there were also deep-fried pickles and deep-fried Snickers on the menu (but we didn't try those)! Suffice it to say, last night we consumed enough saturated fat for the next year.

The scariest food ever

I noticed it for sale in our local boutique grocer. I was looking at the various fancy international chocolates when my eyes fell upon this American abomination -- baconised chocolate.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. This product really exists! I couldn't believe it either so I checked the ingredients on the back; it's not bacon-flavoured bits, it's chunks of real bacon in there!

Here's the rationale:

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?

It never occurred to me before that bacon might fall into Dr Nick's chocotastic food group.