Savory and Sweet

Thursday night passover came to an end, and after a successful night of bowling my team and I went out to the Village Inn to celebrate. The menu listed many fantastic leavened treats, and I considered several different pancake configurations.

It should be noted that after spending the first half of passover with my family I returned to IA hoping to pick up just a few minor passover essentials. A box of matzah, a jar of borscht, and maybe also a jar of gefilte fish. Instead, when I went to Hy-Vee, the table holding their small selection of kosher for passover foods was gone and had been replaced by a ziggurat of Peppridge farm bagels. I tried the shelf in the ethnic food section where year-round kosher foods are usually stored, but the entire selection had been replaced with a wall of ramen noodles. I was so flabbergasted and annoyed that I left with nothing but a bag of lettuce, a rotisserie chicken, and two boxes of eggs. As a result nearly every meal from Sunday night on was built around eggs. Hard-boiled, scrambled, omelets: each was exquisitely boring to me by Thursday night.

But when I got to the Village Inn I was conflicted. My team mates had been talking about getting pie, and the Caramel Pecan Silk Supreme looked over-the-top good, but I still wanted something savory. Searching for something that would fulfill my craving without being overwhelming I finally decided to get my slice of pie with a side of bacon.

My friends were shocked by this combo, but I was amazed I had never thought of it before. Bacon goes great with pancakes and maple syrup, why not serve it with desert?

A quick internet search reveals that my friends and I are far behind the curve. The blogosphere went into a frenzy over the desert-bacon concept during the middle of 2008 after Marini's Candies began selling chocolate-covered bacon. However, Marini's Candies may have gotten the idea from Vosges release of Mo's Bacon Bar in 2007.

The adcopy for Mo's Bacon Bar is a fine example of food porn:

Rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of smoked applewood bacon flirting with deep milk chocolate. Snap off just a tiny piece and place it in your mouth, let the lust of salt and sweet coat your tongue.

God, I'm getting hot, and hungry.

If your taste-buds are aroused by the idea, but not quite to the tune of $10 a bar, just check out Yum Sugar's do-it-yourself recipe.

And, unsurprisingly, my bacon/pie combo was fantastic.