01.18.07
Bacon, Cheese, Chocolate or Olive Oil
This is my 100th post, so let me get it out of the way and say thank you to all my readers and fans. I appreciate the feedback and encouragement and ad clicks you have provided for me in the past, and I am as eager as you are to see where this adventure goes in the next 100 posts!
So to “celebrate” this occasion, rather than write about my latest kitchen development (and there is a good one I have to write about - I will cover it tomorrow I guess…) I figured I would share a neat game with you all that was presented to me with some friends of mine when I was in Bedford, PA over the holiday weekend. This is a fun game for all people who love food, and love to think up their own food combinations. For me, this game is just a blast, and I find myself playing it all the time.
Simple enough, all you have to do is think up a food (no beverages) that can’t be improved with any of the following:
 Bacon… |
 …Cheese (any kind of cheese)… |
 …Chocolate (again, any kind)… |
 …or Olive Oil |
It’s a lot harder than it sounds at first - but makes for great debate at dinner parties. It is not impossible - I have a few that I have thought up, or that people have suggested - but I don’t want to share them with you, I want to see what you all come up with.
 Better with cheese?… Better with chocolate?… Surely it’s better with bacon! |
The best part of playing this game in a group is the different tastes people have. For example, someone suggested “Apple Pie” once, and some people said that Cheddar Cheese makes it better. I personally disagree, though I think that chocolate and apple is a great combination, so I say that apple pie fails to win from that angle.
If you want to play the super-hard version of this game, change “cheese” to “dairy”. Suddenly ice cream, whipped cream, butter and sour cream are all thrown into the mix as well, and the game becomes pretty much impossible.
I hope you all have fun with this - feel free to comment with your suggestions (I will provide feedback with how I feel about the picks of course) and thanks again for all the support over the past 100 posts! I promise the next 100 will be even better. And by “promise”, of course I mean “hope”.
Stumble it!
Rob said,
January 18, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I’m thinking some kind of sushi, though it’s hard to think of any that bacon wouldn’t go nicely with. (Mmmmm, o-toro sashimi and bacon.) What about inari, the nigiri-sushi that conisists of rice stuffed into a pouch of sweet deep-fried tofu?
Allison said,
January 18, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Hi,
Been poking around on your blog but haven’t had a chance to leave a comment. I love reading about your experiences of entering a new career as a chef. I have day dreamed many a times of leaving the tech world to cook but I don’t think it will ever happen for me so I will have to follow your voyage!
Now, as far as the a food that can’t be improved - tripe soup came to mind though “technically” olive oil *could* improve it. Though it my humble opinion *nothing* can improve tripe!
Allison
Heather said,
January 19, 2007 at 1:50 pm
someone just directed me to your site because of your post about this game - this sounds like a lot of fun! and appropriate given the topic of my blog…can’t wait to try it at my next dinner party!
Heather said,
January 19, 2007 at 1:55 pm
and i just realized it’s probably you that left the comment on my blog…man, nothing gets past me!
Chris said,
January 20, 2007 at 11:56 am
I was going to cheat by saying “A chocolate-olive oil, bacon & cheese sandwich” because it would already have all of the ingredients in there, but then I realized “double bacon” or “double cheese” would make it better:)
Congratulations on your 100th post!
Peggy said,
January 20, 2007 at 1:49 pm
How about raw carrots? Not cooked ones which I could imagine with everything but the chocolate, but plain-old sitting-there doing-nothing raw carrots.
And my partner here suggests broccoli . . . which I’m sure you’ll agree is improved by nothing.
Omni said,
January 20, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Calamari? Rack of lamb? Cotton candy?
Matt said,
January 21, 2007 at 2:52 am
Thanks for the ideas people! Here are my comments:
Rob: Cream Cheese is inclueded in many sushi’s as a “Philly roll”, and bacon would help many others as a salty taste and but of a crunch texture.
Allison: While it is a bit of a cop-out to say “this is so bad, nothing could make it better”, I would have to say, that one is pretty close. But bacon again I am guessing would help to make the overall meat flavor better.
Chris: indeed, a cop out of even greater proprotions, but yes, the only thing better than bacon, is more bacon.
Peggy: Raw carrots dipped in a cream cheese dip?… how about a cream cheese and bacon dip? YUM. And yes, you know that broccoli is indeed my least favorite vegetable, but cheese sauce of course is loved by all those who actually like the stuff.
Omni: Calamari made how? Deep fried is most common, and dipped in olive oil with cracked pepper is amazing if you have not had it. Rack of lamb wrapped in bacon, or marinated with olive oil and spices before roasting? After cooked, a rack of lamb with crumbled bacon on it makes my mouth water. But cotton candy. Now THERE is one I think may be a winner if only from a logicial point of view. Sugar like cotton candy works well with chocolate, but how to apply it to chocolate. I would have to assume you just eat them with each other, but that doesn’t seem like much of an “addition”. I like that answer. Good job!
Carol said,
January 21, 2007 at 7:19 pm
How about head cheese?:-)
Ma Titwonky said,
January 22, 2007 at 11:32 am
I love your blog! Do you watch Top Chef, because that’s a great place to see unusual challenges.
My response to your question is: Liver and Onions. Nothing from that list of 4 ingredients could possibly improve the taste of something so strong and vile.
Brilynn said,
January 22, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Not possible. Everything can be improved by one of these. I’m debating the cotton candy by saying that I’m sure some smarty pants (like Ferran Adria) could probably make chocolate cotton candy, whereby the chocolate is the flavour of the spun sugar.
Matt said,
January 23, 2007 at 1:01 am
More great stuff here.
Carol - Head cheese is indeed nasty stuff, and for those who don’t know, it is not a cheese at all. But it is a pork product - and it is hard to think of a pork product that can’t be imporved by more pork - like bacon in this case…
Ma Titwonky - Thanks for the compliment, and keep reading to see my post about food TV, I will let you know how I feel about all this. It isn’t good.. Anyway, your idea of thinking of something so bad that it can’t be improved is kind-of cheating like Allison’s idea above, but I can see how things I don’t like can be improved. Like my hatred for broccoli, even i know cheese can make it better. For liver and onions - which I don’t mind, I could offer up a nice bleu cheese sauce, or of course, more bacon.
Brilynn - you offer up an interesting point - to make chocolate-flavored cotton candy. And yes, Ferran could probably do that. So yeah, perhaps it is improvable in that way. Damn, back to the drawing board.
Misty said,
January 23, 2007 at 2:24 am
I was just about to type sour gummy worms, then I realized that darned cream cheese got in the way of that one too.
THAT’s what I should have had with them when I was pregnant, the bacon horseradish dip didn’t quite inspire culinary excellence.
Great dinner party game!
SilverSara said,
January 25, 2007 at 3:27 am
Hey there,
thanks for the lovely comment which lead to the discovery of your blog!
As for this game, it basically translates to “what doesn’t fat make better?” which is a question I run into quite often
Tough question, really… I look forward to reading more!
-Sara
lolalilu said,
January 26, 2007 at 5:09 am
Matt-
Classic jewish chicken soup cannot be improved by these products since they simply don’t belong. You don’t saute’ the vegetables, so no olive oil. It’s not sweet, so no chocolate. You don’t add cheese or bacon, since it would not be kosher. Besides, the bacon would overpower the chicken flavour and the cheese would totally change the soup’s texture.
That said, I’ll grant you that you could make some dumplings to go in the soup that may have some of these ingredients. But then the whole classic jewish element would be gone. I’ll stick with egg noddles, kasha or matzah-balls in mine, thank you.
Matt said,
January 26, 2007 at 10:36 am
Wow, more great stuff here!
Yes Misty, it is a really tough game! And while you think gummi worms would be better with cream cheese, I say chocolate myself. So long as they are not the sour ones… Hmmm…. sour gummi worms?…
SilverSara - I am so glad you found this blog since I am such a fan of yours! (Everyone else - go read it: http://exploringsilverspoon.blogspot.com/) Indeed, one of the cardinal rules of cooking is: fat tastes good. Nutritionists are not a fan of this fact, but there it is.
lolalilu - good point, given the religious restrictions of some diets - like kosher, halal, and veganism, a lot of these ingredients would be outlawed. If you stick to those restrictions, then this game itself becomes pretty moot. But sticking with the real point of the game which is to say which foods would be better (not kosher) with these additions - then yeah, give me an olive oil drizzle on that soup - or a cheese-filled dumpling - or (Oy vey!) a big pinch of bacon crumbled in there. My uncle may be upset with me for doing it, but good is good.
Eize said,
December 25, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I remembered…
Bacon in Avocado ice cream, courtesy of Top Chef!
[cue theme and scream from Psycho]
Eize said,
May 13, 2008 at 3:02 am
Found another one, and I’m not sure you’re going to like this: Chocolate-covered bacon!!!