Laid out like tiny machines of loving grace, or like a Japanese sushi platter, Dissident Chef’s glorious bacon sampler was a fetishistic array of bacon delights. This displayed the spectrum and variety across the field of dreams otherwise called BACON.
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.
Then reach for that cooling glass of wine.
(To get Hobb’s bacon or Hobbs’ smoked meats, try Golden Gate Meat Company)
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.
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.
For the opening act of Subculture Dining’s “Bacon Heart Attack Dinner,” the Dissident Chef and his crew offered bacon-infused martinis made with Hangar One Vodka. Amazing. The mini martinis were smoky, cold, crisp; a compelling ‘eye-opener’ for a bacon dinner. They were paired with sweet donut balls rolled in pulverized bacon & sugar, quite an aperitif and amuse-bouche combo.
The bacon vodka aperitif was paired with bacon-brown-sugar donuts, served on a platter of woven bacon. The bacon was crushed with brown sugar and the hot little donuts were rolled in it. This was a great opening act for the Bacon Heart Attack Dinner. Whatever was to happen after this, I was aboard. A great start.
The photo above are the donuts in progress, tossed in the bowl. The photo below is the final presentation of donut balls, which sat atop a woven bacon napkin atop a small platter.
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