San Diego Food & Travel

Food & Culture from San Diego to the Ends of the Earth

  • By Region
    • Africa
      • Ethiopia/Eritrea
      • Morocco
    • Americas
      • North America
        • USA
          • Regional American Cuisine
            • California
            • Southern
              • Cajun-Creole
              • Low Country
            • Mountain
          • Tailgate Food
        • Mexico
          • Baja
            • BajaMed/New Cuisine of Baja
        • Carribean
      • South American
        • Argentina
        • Brazil
    • Asia
      • China
      • Japan
      • Korea
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Italy
      • Poland
      • Spain
      • UK
    • Middle East
      • Afghanistan
      • Israel
    • Travel
      • USA
      • Europe
      • Middle East
  • History, Styles, Etc.
    • Culinary History
    • Modern Gastronomy
    • Slow Food
    • Fusion
    • Kosher
      • Kosher Fusion
    • Vegetarian
    • Fine Dining
    • Street Food
    • Comfort Food
    • Holiday Food
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • Reviews
    • San Diego CityBeat
      • The World Fare
    • L’Chaim San Diego Magazine
  • Recipes
  • News
  • Commentary
  • Other
    • Restaurant Reviews
      • San Diego
      • Baja
    • Food Truck Reviews
    • Market Reviews
    • Other
  • Video
  • Contact Me
    • About Michael A. Gardiner

NEWS: Inaugural Bacon & Barrels San Diego festival this weekend or, "How I spoiled my dinner judging the Jefe del Porko competition"

May 29, 2014 MAG Leave a Comment

The Duck Dive’s “Three Lil Piggies” trio of pork, applewood smoked bacon, roasted pork loin and pork belly with Cider Jus

The Duck Dive’s “Three Lil Piggies” trio of pork, applewood smoked bacon, roasted pork loin and pork belly with Cider Jus

On Tuesday afternoon, I – along with Troy Johnson, Andrew Spurgin and Stacy Poon-Kinney — had the opportunity to judge the “Jefe del Porko” culinary competition, a part of the inaugural Bacon & Barrels festival taking place this Saturday at Embarcadero Marina Park South.  A VIP dinner featuring Top Chef finalist Brooke Williamson takes place Friday night at BassMNT (919 4th Avenue, San Diego).

The winner of the competition was a bacon-wrapped duck fat dish entered by Barleymash (600 Fifth Avenue, Gaslamp) that defied the laws of modern health-consciousness, if not gravity.  But there really is no substitute for taste, is there?  The

Competition was fierce, in part a tribute to the fact that bacon makes absolutely anything better, in part a tribute to the versatility of bacon and in large part a testament to the devotion of San Diego chefs to the bacon arts.  Honorable mention, in my view, was owed to Tavern’s superb take on the BLT. The “B” was represented by bourbon roasted tomatoes, the “L” by lamb bacon and the “T” by tzatziki sauce.  It might well have been the winner in my book if I could figure out how to explain that the winner of the “Jefe del Porko” competiton cooked lambo instead of porko.†

Andrew Spurgin, Troy Johnson, Michael Gardiner and Stacey Poon-Kinney judging the Jefe de Porko competition

Andrew Spurgin, Troy Johnson, Michael Gardiner and Stacey Poon-Kinney judging the Jefe de Porko competition

In addition to a series of chef and mixology demos, the Bacon & Barrels festival will give attendees the opportunity to taste most of the entries themselves and vote on a People’s Choice award which will be announced at 4:00 p.m. from the Culinary Stage.  The festivals gates open at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday for general admission ticket holders.  For more information go to:  http://www.baconandbarrels.com/schedule-1

† Also worthy of note was Eureka UTC which did their best to attempt to improperly influence†† the judging panel by submitting a Bacon Old Fashioned.  While it did not get them the victory I definitely like their style. 

†† Eureka UTC was not really doing — or trying to do — anything untoward.  Their Bacon Old Fashioned was not officially an entrant in the competition, they had actually won the Mixology portion by default (since no other mixologists participated) and simply brought the drink for the judges to enjoy. It was, in my view,  a rather nice gesture.  Personally, I would not want to do anything whatsoever to discourage future such gestures on their part.  Indeed, if they would like to contact me through this website I would be more than happy to give them my work address so that they can engage in such gestures on a regular basis.

News, Other, Restaurant Reviews, San Diego

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Join the Mailing List

RECENT POSTS

  • MODERN KOSHER: Cookbook Cover Reveal
  • SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: How Bánh Mì Stacks Up
  • WORLD FARE: The Taste of a New Generation
  • WORLD FARE: Delicious Opulence at Animae
  • SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: Unrushed Rice

Tag Cloud

All Forked Up All Forked Up Podcast Anthony Bourdain Art of Spooning Badass Kosher Baja Baja California BajaMed ceviche CityBeat Convoy Convoy district Davin Waite Deckman's en El Mogor Eater San Diego Ensenada farm-to-table Hot Pot Javier Plascencia Kosher L'Chaim San Diego Magazine Mercy Baron Michael Gardiner Patrick Ponsaty Podcast Progression Magazine ramen rosarito San Diego San Diego CityBeat Sheen Fischer Sichuan Specialty Produce Specialty Produce Network Sushi tacos The Art of Spooning The World Fare THRILLIST Tijuana Valle de Guadalupe World Fare Wrench & Rodent Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub Year-End Wrap Up

RECENT COMMENTS

  • mgardiner on SAN DIEGO RESTAURANT REVIEW: Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria
  • Heather Baziotes on SAN DIEGO RESTAURANT REVIEW: Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria
  • Top 10 Vietnamese Local Food on WORLD FARE: A different bowl of noodles at Mi Quang Mien Trung
  • M on The Most Expensive Seafood on the Rock: Percebes | Chorizo | Peas
  • mgardiner on BADASS KOSHER — Jewish Mexico: It’s not an Oxymoron

SD Food & Travel on Google+

------------------

©2020 San Diego Food & Travel · All Rights Reserved