Bacon is a natural food enhancer, it approves just about anything you add it to. No one knows the power of bacon better than the good people who organize The Great Big Bacon Picnic, an annual feast for bacon lovers. This year’s event was held on September 24th and 25th and boasted a lineup of over 100 vendors, each one offering a unique dish of bacon or pork belly. The offerings ranged from bacon cheeseburger sliders to Bloody Marys with bacon infused vodka. Last year, the fun was held indoors with vendors making the best of limited space. This year they took full advantage of the good weather and sprawled out into the parking lot creating a bacon lovers paradise of food and beverages ready for sampling.
One of the most popular stations was the Bacon Bar, a veritable cornucopia of bacon options. From thick cut to black pepper bacon, guests lined up to get their fill of crispy bacon on top of more bacon. If this had been the only kiosk we would have been satisfied but there was so much more to explore! Restaurants and vendors from all over with incredibly unique items, such as the grilled pork belly prepared by Graceland. Pork belly is essential bacon in its most natural form before the thin slicing and curing. As such it is an ideal cut of meat for almost any sauce. Graceland took pork belly to a bizarre and unexpected place with their banana’s foster pork belly. Some of the toppings on this included peanut butter and banana a combination made famous by the King himself Mr. Elvis Presley. The chef at Graceland must have channeled their inner king when concocting this recipe as it has been said that Mr. Presley often enjoyed peanut butter banana and bacon sandwiches. Cow and Clover’s Bacon lettuce wraps were another of our favorites. In between all of the rich savory courses, we stopped by their station to cleanse our palate on some fresh bib lettuce stuffed with bacon and a killer relish with a spicy jalapeno kick
The Big Bacon Picnic isn’t just salty meaty goodness we also satisfied our sweet tooth with bacon topped donuts from Astoria’s Gossip Coffee and our personal favorite bacon chocolate chip cookies courtesy of Rhoda Cookies. For the more daring foodie, Roni and Sue brought along their Bacon Buttercrunch toffee a complex snack with notes of sweet, buttery, salty and spicy.
In addition to food, the picnic also introduced us to several local breweries and beverages we hadn’t tried before. Greenport’s Leaf Pile Ale is a tasty pumpkin ale brewed locally in Greenport, New York. We also enjoyed several helpings of Jarritos soda. Jarrito’s is a Mexican soft drink in a variety of flavors we highly recommend the pineapple and the grapefruit.
With endless food and drink relaxation is a must. Attendees were invited to take advantage of several food coma napping pods courtesy of Casper. Each pod was equipped with a comfy mattress pillows and a phone with pre-recorded bedtime stories read lovingly by Casper employees. They really did think of everything. Though you may have missed the festivities, this time, you don’t have to miss next year’s event. Visit GreatBigBacon.com and sign up for the official newsletter, while you’re there check out the complete list of participating vendors. There’s no reason you can’t enjoy a meal at any one of the many establishments listed in preparation for the big party next year.
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[…] our love of deep fried, cheese covered and bacon wrapped everything will never cease, the growing landscape of healthy options offers a reprieve […]
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