Bacon of the Month: Balinese Long Pepper Bacon

The final bacon! This bacon is made for Zingerman's, with a wet cure featuring Balinese long pepper. What's that? It's like black pepper, but not. It's an artisanal spice, but had no one told me it was there, I'm not sure I would have realized it wasn't regular black pepper. But it has a more complex set of flavors, with a lingering tingling that you don't get with regular black pepper. And the bacon itself? It's really nice! I might invite my favorites from the club back for a side-by-side tasting. That would likely mean the Nueske's, Ozark Trails, and the Long Pepper. (That would also mean 2¾ pounds of bacon, though.)

Bacon of the Month: Benton's Dry Cured Tennessee Bacon

Month 5 of the Zingerman's bacon club brought the second dry-cured choice. It's very meaty, but I think too salty. Perhaps it would be good in a BLT or some other use where the salt would be less prominent. But for a Bacon of the Month tasting, I really just want to try the bacon on its own. I mean, I'm not throwing the rest away, but if I bring a few varieties back after I'm done with the club for a taste-off, this is not going to be part of that.

forty-something

I'm still in my forties! Sigrid and I went out to dinner at Frances on Friday. It was our second dinner at Frances, the other time being for Sigrid's birthday in 2011. We should go more often! This is a "market shot," a spiked shot of something they found fresh at the market (in this case, blood orange with a couple of apertifs tossed in).


For my birthday itself, we had roast chicken and vegetables...

...with cupcakes from Roseann afterward.

Bacon of the Month: Underground Bacon, Juniper & Thyme

April arrived a bit early, with installment #4 of the Zingerman's Bacon Club arriving yesterday. Wet-cured with juniper and thyme, and smoked with hickory and apple wood. It's pretty interesting. Perhaps not a good candidate for a go-to everyday bacon, but it's delightful nonetheless.

apple pie

Anders and Sigrid made a pie.

Happy Pi Day!

We ate the whole thing!

leftovers for lunch

Bacon of the Month: Ozark Trails

This month's bacon selection from Zingerman's hails from Arkansas. It's wet-brined, peppered, and probably the lowest on the sugar (and salt) so far. It's also the thinnest cut, and the smallest package (12 oz. versus 16 and 14 in the previous two months). To me, it tastes the most "bacony" of the three varieties. The pepper kicks in slowly, with a delayed aftertaste that I noticed several seconds after my first bite. I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure, but I think I like this better than the Nueske's!

Big White: Seattle detour, Saturday

And we're off! Oh, except the second leg of our flight has been canceled due to whiteout conditions in Kelowna. So... quick, book a hotel in Seattle!


The Hotel Max is super hip, with retro games like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.


It's also right next to the United States District Court.


We arrived a bit before 4, and our room (which we had just reserved online) wasn't quite ready. We went down the street to a coffee shop. Let me tell you, Seattle hipsterism makes San Francisco look staid.



We were three blocks away from Seattle's Pacific Place Din Tai Fung...



...so the boys (and Sigrid) tried xiao long bao for the first time...



...and some kimchi dumplings...

...plus orange juice with sprite...

...and some red bean buns to close dinner out.

Big White: Seattle detour, Sunday

We couldn't get rebooked to Kelowna until Monday, so we spent Sunday checking out Seattle. We started off by checking out the Pike Place Market.


Soren had two corn dogs for breakfast...

...while I went for the fried chicken hearts and gizzards.


After a more normal breakfast start, Anders joined Team Corn Dog.


Next, we went to the Space Needle. Sigrid is thinking that maybe we're done with tall towers with long lines. She and I went up the Eiffel Tower on our honeymoon; we went with the boys, Miran and Haraboji up the N Seoul Tower in 2016; and now the Space Needle. Whether it's because it came after the others or because it's under a lot of construction right now as they add a glass floor, we were underwhelmed...

...but we did get this fantastic souvenir pic. (For the record, I told everyone to make a funny face, but Soren seems to be the only one who did.)


After all the crazed travel and last minute arrangements on Saturday, we needed some downtime, so after lunch we went back to the hotel room, where Anders did some homework. He looked a lot like I suspect I do when I'm working from my hotel room while traveling.


While Anders was working on his homework, Soren and I went down to the lobby and played games...
...checked out the lobby art...

...and enjoyed the afternoon happy hour (well, I did).


We originally tried to come up with a cool dinner plan, but eventually decided that was too ambitious. Instead, we ended up going to an Il Fornaio, of all places. (There's an Il Fornaio in SF, and another in San Jose.)

Big White: miscellany

The Tuesday morning view out of our condo window.


We could walk out of the condo and ski down to a lift, or we could walk up a short way (through the tunnel you can see in this pic) to rent gear, schedule lessons, eat at a restaurant or shop at the village market.


The village.


Saturday morning, after quite a bit more snow.


We had a sleepover on Friday night.




We had Big Whisky at Big White.


Our last dinner, on Saturday night.


Fireworks on Saturday night! (Hard to photograph, though.)


Sadly, we did have to leave.