Saturated Fat at Home

For breakfast, I had bacon and eggs. With coffee. This never happens.

Why? I'm actually not a huge fan of bacon. And I despise eggs, with the occasional brief, tentative foray into thinking maybe I might sort of like them. There's also something about packaged bacon I find irrationally repellent- the slime layer of saturated fat on the packaging, that then transfers to my hands and never comes off; the odd, synthetic aroma of uncooked bacon in plastic. And, invariably, there's leftovers, which are even worse.

Alas, I had leftovers. The bacon originated from Tuesday's stuffed dates adventure. It wasn't really that the leftovers were mocking me, or that I wanted bacon, so much as I wanted to re-season my cast-iron skillet. Bacon is absolutely magical for that.

The result was pretty decent- I like my bacon super-crispy, almost burned, and I was able to accomplish that well with the skillet. The egg was, well, an egg (ick), but some salt and chives made it tolerable.

The coffee was luckily delicious.

I am a little obsessed with Qualia. But their coffee is that good. Today, I actually finished off the Sidamo beans we'd had lying around for about three weeks (and were thus not "fresh" anymore, by Qualia's use-within-two-weeks standard). The coffee was still extremely tasty, with gorgeously complex chocolate/fruity flavors. Oddly, I had the Sidamo last time we drank coffee in-house, prepared with their pour-over method, and Jon had the Guatemala. I find the Sidamo doesn't taste great that way, but is perfect in my coffeemaker at home, whereas the Guatemala was a.maz.ing. in-house and just ok in my coffeemaker. Because the beans are so freshly roasted, the flavors change a little from day to day, so I'll be curious to see how the Guate tastes over the next few weeks.

Pollo Pibil at Home

For dinner, we had pollo pibil, with jicama salad and stuffed dates. Oh, and some pricey whole wheat sourdough from Whole Paycheck I bought the other day completely by accident (it was mixed in with the cheap baguettes).

I'm slowly easing my way into Rick Bayless' world of terrifyingly complicated, anthropologically correct Mexican food. Now that I'm cool with a simple tomatillo sauce, I decided to branch out into the Yucatecan-style rubs.

Lessons learned? When Rick Bayless notes achiote seeds (aka annatto) are impossibly difficult to grind, believe him. I accidentally dropped and broke my metate, and was afraid all the bashing would break my molcajete as well.(By the way, I just found this article about molcajetes and seasoning them, and it is awesome.)

I'd never worked with achiote before, and was also surprised to note the scent. Despite what Wikipedia says, it's more like a light, complex lemon aroma than a peppery/nutmeg thing. I didn't find them to have much flavor, just aroma.

The rub was relatively quick to make, and made the house smell fabulous. If I'd felt like more work, grilling would have been the perfect cooking solution. The actual recipe recommends wrapping in banana leaves and steaming; instead, I poured the remaining marinade over the chicken thighs and baked them. They turned out delicious, but would have benefited from more sauce. More delicious, aromatic, garlicky sauce.

To accompany, I made a loose version of Bayless' jicama salad with bitter orange juice, red onion, chilis, and cilantro. It's refreshing and a great example of the magic of powdered chilis. I added cucumber instead of the recommended canteloupe, but next time I want to try mango.

Finally, the dates. It was sort of a crazy idea, based on Penelope Casas' recipe and my experiences with the gorgeous dátiles from Modesto. Unfortunately, despite living in Arlibamba, surrounded by Latino grocery stores, no one sells membrillo. And damn if I'm going to spend $8 on a tiny little tub of artisanal quince paste from Whole Foods. So I merely stuffed them with manchego, wrapped them in bacon, and broiled away. They turned out well, but we definitely missed the membrillo.

Breakfast: Chocolate and Bacon

For breakfast, I ate chocolate. And bacon. Together. Along with some Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

I'd heard great things about Mo's Bacon Bar, a chocolate bar from Vosges featuring uncured bacon and smoked salt chunks, so I finally broke down and tried it. It wasn't bad- chocolate and bacon really can't be bad- but I could do better. The bacon was not crispy, and the flavors just weren't quite blended enough. The smoked salt chunks were a little disruptive and strange.

The other big problem is the price point. I paid about $2/oz, which is still cheaper than I found it online (and also cheaper than the jamon iberico de bellota I've been lusting after at Central Market, and will never purchase, at $99/pound), but seriously. Considering I can find three or four other really excellent chocolate bars at Whole Foods for far less than $2/oz, the bacon bar had better be perfect. And it's not, at least not for me.


I appreciate the trailer-trash cachet of bacon and chocolate, but I'd rather snack on something else at that price, or make some at home and adjust the recipe for my own preferences. I prefer very crispy bacon, and I like to dip my bacon in maple syrup. I think I'd like homemade crispy bacon maple chocolate much better.