BaconFest Florida: The Eight Best Bacon Foods We Ate

Ian Witlen

Juicy, greasy slabs of cured pork belly, by the pounds; in as many preparations as possible and dipped in and/or wrapped around as many highly caloric food items-- such as chocolate and chicken wings,--imaginable. That is the central idea behind BaconFest, a hedonistic, triglyceride inducing, throw-the-weight-scale-aside, hog-lovers event that took Chicago and New York by storm and then moved towards us. On Saturday night, South Florida had its share of this beastly bacon affair.

A sellout for several weeks, this pig pantheon was a resounding success at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek. South Florida evidently loves its swine just about as much as the rest of the country.

Chef Todd Fisher, from Discovery's Destination America network show, United States of Bacon, hosted what we called our own pork-a-palooza. The lines were long and the bellies were bursting all night long as the packed crowd sampled bacon-inspired items from local eateries like Big City Tavern and Caffe Luna Rosa and savored bacon infused delights from La Marquise Desserts and Susy Pops.

We loaded up on Lipitor, braved the hungered mega-carnivorous masses and prepared to pig out (pun all the way) on all the creative offerings incorporating the other white meat.

Best Drinkable Bacon
The bacon milkshake from The Melting Pot of Coral Springs.

We didn't know what to expect when we sipped on this concoction from the Melting Pot, but it was one of the most savory items we sampled all night long. Imagine a cookies & cream milkshake, but instead of the cookie chunks, what you have is bacon. But the bacon was not overbearing. It was a perfect mesh of salty and sweet. The bacon bits in this primarily vanilla milkshake were diminutive but still exquisitely noticeable on the palate upon sipping. Once the refreshing malty ice cream start completed, the tiny portions of bacon were still engaging our taste buds on the finish.

Best Gut-Busting Use of Bacon as a Dessert
Big City Tavern's bacon crusted cider donuts with maple glaze

The long lines for this popular stand at BaconFest were well deserved, garnished with powdered sugar these bacon crusted cider donuts were a succulent treat. The best part was they were warm too, just like grabbing a donut right from the oven at Krispy Kreme. The maple glaze made for fantastic lip licking when we finished these indulgent deep-fried, well-balanced goodies. The bacon was infused seamlessly, lending a sharp pork taste that blended effortlessly with the sweet dough.

Best Use of Bacon in Comfort Food with a Twist
Gimme a Burger's coffee-infused bacon burger with coffee and brown sugar rub.

The tart taste that greeted our taste buds as we bit into this burger was an unfamiliar, but not unwelcoming delight. That tart tang was the coffee that was infused in Gimme a Burger's juicy, tender offering. The injection of coffee made for a fantastic lingering bitter taste on our tongues as we digested the sliced red onion and cheddar cheese that garnished this perfect mélange of sweet and salty.