Bacon, Blueberries, and Brunch

This morning was the monthly farmers market here in St Andrews, and we finally got around to branching out from our usual fare of cheese, smokies, and bread. Our friend Amy has been raving about the "best bacon in the world" for quite some time, and so we made plans to indulge with a brunch after our market excursion. Judging from the queue in front of the bacon seller, it was clear that a lot of people share Amy's view.

First of all, bacon here is a little bit weird because it generally doesn't crisp up quite like American bacon. It's more like a slab of thin pork and even if you get "streaky bacon" with more fat, it stays fairly uniform and pink when you cook it. Well, at least that's what I thought until I decided to bake it in the oven. I bought middle bacon, unsmoked, and it had these thinner strips that came off each end and curled around. And, oh yes, those strips turn into crispy bits of heaven in the oven! Which is easily enough for me to hop on the bandwagon and declare this to be the best bacon EVER. BEHOLD:



We turned those blueberries from above (yeah, those weren't locally grown) into some amazing blueberry pancakes to go with the bacon. Apparently, in Amy's family they make their pancakes as big as the skillet they're cooked in. So, along with the best bacon ever, we had the biggest pancakes ever! Yum.

After all that deliciousness, we pulled ourselves out of the food coma long enough to go get coffee and do work. However, as I write this, we are polishing off a platter of bread, brie, greek olives, and salami with big plans for some locally made (and apparently amazing) pesto for dinner. Mmmm...today is a good food day :)