Bacon Has Jumped the SharkThe nation’s infatuation with bacon gets stronger every year, but now it may have gone too far. We were members of the Bacon of the Month club from way back. We too fell in love with the bacon-flavored chocolate promoted at the Fancy Food Show recently. We even hosted occasional bacon tastings, and just for good measure included everyone’s favorite breakfast meat in our recent Grub Street grilling video. But to say “everything should taste like bacon,” like the zealous producers of Bacon Salt do, is perhaps taking the obsession too far.
At the Market
Fancy Food Show Brings Colonial Fruit Drinks and Our Old Friend Kulfi
We took a break from our regularly scheduled Greenmarket food fest to hike through acres of fancy foods from the world over at last week’s Fancy Food Show. Over 2,000 displays filled the Javits Center with everything from antifreeze-green Chilean avocado oil to Brooklyn-made gummy bears that were actually the size of honey bears. To avoid going into fancy-food shock, we honed in on the (often overlapping) new and organic/natural categories. Here’s highlights, all currently available in the city.
Neighborhood Watch
Pioneer Bar-B-Q Not Dead After AllHell’s Kitchen: The last day to catch the Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center is tomorrow. [SpecialtyFood.com]
Lower East Side: The East Side Company Bar’s Black Cherry Daiquiri makes for a spot-on summer libation. [Down by the Hipster]
Red Hook: New owners plan to bring Pioneer Bar back, barbecue and all. [Eater]
Soho: Learn about the science of cooking from author Harold McGee in a three-day, $1,200 course starting July 14 at the French Culinary Institute. [Food Section]
Times Square: Celebrate Argentina’s independence from Spain tonight at Havana Central with a wine tasting hosted by Ellisa Cooper. [Grub Street]
Upper East Side: The MTA will change its design for the Second Avenue subway line to avoid closing two Food Emporiums. [Gothamist] And 62nd Street has gained a casual Italian restaurant, Pane e Vino, and a 24-hour eatery called David’s. [New York Social Diary]
Back of the House
Casual Is the New Snooty — But Chefs Are Still Better Than YouChefs are imperious demigods who impose endless indignities on diners, Bruni says; also admits the possibility that critics may be partially to blame. [NYT]
What’s life like for big-shot chefs, anyway? How much money do they make, and where does it come from? Flay, Batali, and a number of lesser beings spill the beans. [NYT]
According to annonymous sources, Rachel Ray apparently had a few racially insensitive words to say about her new patron Oprah Winfrey two years ago. [TMZ]
