The Ultimate Food

Blueberries, salmon, accai berries, and nuts are all categorized as super foods. Bananas, onions, and garlic are all foods that I have deemed as invaders. The ultimate food though, is bacon! I know, I know, some people are thinking that bacon is unhealthy and should be removed from everyone's diet. Hear me out on this hypothesis. Bacon is a food that can stand alone as the best piece of your meal, or meld into a meal to take it to the next level. Bacon is great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, or even in dessert. Bacon takes any salad that it is added to and ratchets it up a few notches. Take an already exceptional food like filet mignon. Sure it is already on the top shelf of your dinner menu by itself; wrap it in bacon and you have a feature item. Little smokies, fabulous by themselves, exceptional when wrapped in bacon. Green beans straight out of the garden will knock your socks off, but add a little bacon to the equation and your taste buds are in heaven. What is a BLT without the bacon? Who is going to eat a lettuce and tomato sandwich on toast? You add some bacon and anyone will wrap their mitts around that. Any average hamburger can become great when you add a couple slices of thick cut bacon to the top. These thoughts came to me over the weekend when I was making our first batch of chilli for the fall. Chilli is something that is really hard to screw up, but when you fry up some bacon to start things off you absolutely cannot go wrong. The bacon grease provides a smokey atmosphere to saute up your onion, garlic, and tomatoes that cannot be duplicated by any other food. Sure some would argue that it is just all the fat the bacon brings to the dish. Not so fast my friend. Butter is fat, but does not pack near the taste sensation that good bacon does. Think about it, have the Canadians tried to develop their own, "Canadian butter?" I don't think so. Bacon is so good that everyone wants to be known in the same culinary sphere. Next time you are thinking about how you can make your dish better, just add a little bacon. Go ahead, sprinkle some bacon on the top of that sundae for a savory experience. You will not be let down.