It was a crisp early afternoon on the first weekend in October when I made my way to one of my favorite drinking establishments the EastBurn. They're supposed to have good food too, but I'm always too distracted by the large whiskey selection and constantly rotating beer taps. However, today I was there for the "Baconfest" block party. They blocked off 18th between Burnside and Ankeny and set up a series of booths along each of the sidewalks.
After dropping off my cans of pork and beans for the Oregon Food Bank at the entrance, I made my way to the back because that is where Laurelwood Brewing Co. was serving there special for-this-event-only Bacon Beer. It was a full-bodied and smoky porter that was just a little too heavy to have too much of. As the name implied there was plenty of bacon flavor.
With plastic beer mug in hand, I turned around to checkout the halfpipe that the guys from Bacon Skateboards were playing on. However, I was quickly board by the lack-luster skills on display and was way more entertained by the t-shirt they were selling with Bacon written in bacon over a head shot of Kevin Bacon.
I then sampled a "Bacon Pop". This was half a slice of very thick cut bacon, cooked in maple syrup and fried till it was just firm enough to be put on a stick. It was delicious but I started to have images of my self at the county fair and had to sit down, giving me a chance to do some people watching. It was a fairly standard mix of 20-30 something Portlanders which meant there were some event appropriate humorous t-shirts. My favorite was the "Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder." Although the "Everything tastes better wrapped in bacon" t-shirt with circles of bacon provocatively placed over her bust did make me laugh and also thing of the Bacon Bra.
Getting up to checkout what else there was lead me to the Bacon Salt booth for some free samples of their various salts. They are also the makers of Baconnaise, a product that I have yet to be able to bring my self to try. Fortunately, before I could think to much about what a bacon and mayonnaise combination might taste like, The J&D mascot showed up (a guy in a gigantic slice of bacon costume) and distracted me.
Going down the line, I found a booth for Inagadda Glass where Davida Fernandez made some realistic looking glass bacon and egg ornaments. Then it was over to the Red Cross booth to spun the wheel and find out what category about emergency preparedness I would answer a question about. It was Tsunamis, appropriate since there was a tsunami warning off the Oregon coast that morning due to an underwater earthquake near Samoa. Turns out I grossly underestimated the speed of a tsunami wave. Turns out it goes between 400 and 600 miles per hour.
I deiced to drown my sorrows from getting the question wrong by trying the Bakon Vodka bloody marry. I couldn't taste any bacon due to all the tomato juice which was disappointing. Had I known what he was going to serve me, I would have tried to talk him into a strait shot of the stuff. Then it was off to the Parkers
Parkers Waffles & Coffee booth for one of their soft, moist waffles, smothered in bourbon butter, wrapped into a funnel then filled with bits of bacon. It was a long wait but it was delicious. However, I had reached my limit; my taste buds had reached bacon overload. Fortunately, Rouge Brewing was there with their Sesquicentennial Ale and while my sense of taste was being rejuvenated I was able to get a front and center position for the bacon eating contest.
It wasn't really so much of a contest as it was a line of people eating things covered in bacon. It started off all right with round 1 just being a BLT. One guy was really into it and had his plate on the ground and got on his knees to better shovel the food into his mouth. One lady decided she wasn't going to have any of it and didn't take more than a bite of her sandwich before leaving the contest. Next came the Voodoo Doughnut maple bacon bars. Those looked good. Next it got little weird with it just being a pealed banana with a strip of bacon wrapped around it. The penultimate task was to down several peeps covered in Bacon Salt. This one just about got a few of the contestants to loose it. Finally, it was the bacon ice cream sundaes. This round actually did have a goal of seeing who could finish first. Emily Gibson of The Meat Show won, but the prize was given to the guy who competed on his knees since she was the organizer of the event.
I left at this point, but there was more on the schedule and I thought it was entertaining enough to hope that they would do it again next year and see what sort of meat mayhem gets caused as the sun goes down.
After dropping off my cans of pork and beans for the Oregon Food Bank at the entrance, I made my way to the back because that is where Laurelwood Brewing Co. was serving there special for-this-event-only Bacon Beer. It was a full-bodied and smoky porter that was just a little too heavy to have too much of. As the name implied there was plenty of bacon flavor.
With plastic beer mug in hand, I turned around to checkout the halfpipe that the guys from Bacon Skateboards were playing on. However, I was quickly board by the lack-luster skills on display and was way more entertained by the t-shirt they were selling with Bacon written in bacon over a head shot of Kevin Bacon.
I then sampled a "Bacon Pop". This was half a slice of very thick cut bacon, cooked in maple syrup and fried till it was just firm enough to be put on a stick. It was delicious but I started to have images of my self at the county fair and had to sit down, giving me a chance to do some people watching. It was a fairly standard mix of 20-30 something Portlanders which meant there were some event appropriate humorous t-shirts. My favorite was the "Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder." Although the "Everything tastes better wrapped in bacon" t-shirt with circles of bacon provocatively placed over her bust did make me laugh and also thing of the Bacon Bra.
Getting up to checkout what else there was lead me to the Bacon Salt booth for some free samples of their various salts. They are also the makers of Baconnaise, a product that I have yet to be able to bring my self to try. Fortunately, before I could think to much about what a bacon and mayonnaise combination might taste like, The J&D mascot showed up (a guy in a gigantic slice of bacon costume) and distracted me.
Going down the line, I found a booth for Inagadda Glass where Davida Fernandez made some realistic looking glass bacon and egg ornaments. Then it was over to the Red Cross booth to spun the wheel and find out what category about emergency preparedness I would answer a question about. It was Tsunamis, appropriate since there was a tsunami warning off the Oregon coast that morning due to an underwater earthquake near Samoa. Turns out I grossly underestimated the speed of a tsunami wave. Turns out it goes between 400 and 600 miles per hour.
I deiced to drown my sorrows from getting the question wrong by trying the Bakon Vodka bloody marry. I couldn't taste any bacon due to all the tomato juice which was disappointing. Had I known what he was going to serve me, I would have tried to talk him into a strait shot of the stuff. Then it was off to the Parkers
Parkers Waffles & Coffee booth for one of their soft, moist waffles, smothered in bourbon butter, wrapped into a funnel then filled with bits of bacon. It was a long wait but it was delicious. However, I had reached my limit; my taste buds had reached bacon overload. Fortunately, Rouge Brewing was there with their Sesquicentennial Ale and while my sense of taste was being rejuvenated I was able to get a front and center position for the bacon eating contest.
It wasn't really so much of a contest as it was a line of people eating things covered in bacon. It started off all right with round 1 just being a BLT. One guy was really into it and had his plate on the ground and got on his knees to better shovel the food into his mouth. One lady decided she wasn't going to have any of it and didn't take more than a bite of her sandwich before leaving the contest. Next came the Voodoo Doughnut maple bacon bars. Those looked good. Next it got little weird with it just being a pealed banana with a strip of bacon wrapped around it. The penultimate task was to down several peeps covered in Bacon Salt. This one just about got a few of the contestants to loose it. Finally, it was the bacon ice cream sundaes. This round actually did have a goal of seeing who could finish first. Emily Gibson of The Meat Show won, but the prize was given to the guy who competed on his knees since she was the organizer of the event.
I left at this point, but there was more on the schedule and I thought it was entertaining enough to hope that they would do it again next year and see what sort of meat mayhem gets caused as the sun goes down.
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