For the finale of his “Bacon Heart Attack Dinner,” the Dissident Chef added a post-dessert lagniappe of bacon chocolate chip cookies, hot from the oven. Talk about incredible: these bacon chocolate chip cookies were among the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. Many of my fellow diners made similar remarks about the cookies.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, the Dissident Chef will consider packaging these for wider distribution. (Whole Foods, Delmonico’s, Dean & Deluca, are you listening?)
Bacon Ice Cream, Bacon, Bacon Biscuit - Dissident Chef
And the non-bacon items: sous vide strawberry and rhubarb compote. Fantastic plate.
But wait…that’s not all…the last pairing is below, and it was an awesome touch.
Bacon-infused Four Roses Whisky!!
Bacon-Infused, Four Roses Single Barrel Kentucky Whisky
If the picture looks a bit grainy, I think it represents the mind-fuzz of everyone at the Bacon Heart Attack Dinner at that point. Wonderfully grainy-headed.
Beef Heart Confit over Hobbs’ Bacon, Lentils, Onion Flowers
The fifth course of Dissident Chef’s Subculture Dining “Bacon Heart Attack Dinner” was a serious boost; another great dish with more complexity than the Spam (which was awesome). The beef heart confit flayed like a welcoming, flickering Maori tongue atop green garlic, Hobbs’ bacon, and lentils.
Visually, there’s an erotic play happening as well, with the phallic onion flowers atop the open, flattened beef heart confit.
The flavors have stepped up, especially bolstered by the big red swathe of house-made sriracha, the red chile pepper sauce popular throughout Southeast Asia. The Dissident Chef painted a big sriracha swoop across the plate and that hot pepper infuses the lentils and beef heart confit to just the kind of heat that keeps you aware of mild fire in the mouth. Just enough to enjoy the burn.
The Chateau Guiot Rose´has three varietals: mostly grenache and syrah, with some cinsault. The pink is dark-hearted, and the fruit initially bold (strawberry, raspberry) but pretty dry through the finish. It was a great pairing to the rich spiciness of the bacon beef heart confit dish, and would be a great summer wine for anything you might barbecue.
Chateau Guiot Rose (grenache/syrah) from House of Wines SF
Home-made Spam with cippolini onions, fingerling potatoes, bacon broth
In square bowls came a lovely little spam and broth, to be sopped up with great bread. I felt like a character in a Dickens novel, wanting some more, but probably slurped more graciously in my broth-swigging.
The spam was made by the Dissident Chef by combining various meat parts into a mixture that included bacon and odd parts like trotters. The texture was indeed Spam-like, or perhaps like a softer, more robustly flavored sausage. The fingerling potatoes were the country cousins who didn’t add much to the party and were probably embarrassed to even be there. Another nice surprise; another amazing little taste mob. Really a small but great dish.
Course three of the Bacon Heart Attack Dinner had a flurry of flavors, but the richness suggested by bacon and marjoram butter sauce were little mouthfuls of subtleties. (Especially compared to the later, richer, and more piquant dishes that followed.) The small halibut was wrapped in Hobbs’ Applewood Smoked Bacon. Braised fennel and a tiny edible flower bisect the plate; the marjoram-butter sauce convenes the flavor-clashes together in a truly sumptuous manner.
The pairing for this dish was house-made rice wine from the Dissident Chef and crew (no bottle shown).
For course 1 of Subculture Dining’s “Bacon Heart Attack Dinner,” the Dissident Chef served little chicken-fried wild boar bacon balls, paired with escarole, The wild boar bacon’s chewiness and rough smokiness tastes not unlike a softer, more palatable form of jerky. The quick chicken fried style added a bit of texture to the fatty boar, which visually counterplayed the brilliant green salad of escarole and wild sugar snap peas. The slight bitterness of the escarole and the bright, mildly sweet peas were a great contrast against the fatty, smoky wild boar bacon ball. A great opening dish.
The Bergerac Rose is a combination of merlot, cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon. Soft fruit tones here, a nice opening taste that brightens up the dark smokiness of the wild boar. In the glass, it’s a bright, zippy pink. And against the bright plated greens, it’s a pairing made in Laura Ashley / Ralph Lauren / prep school heaven. A visual feast, and great sipping with the escarole, wild snap peas and boar bacon ball.
Course 1 Pairing: Chateau Calabre - Bergerac Rose
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