It was a quiet Saturday morning that looked like it would be another hot & sunny California day. A bunch of us were out on a weekend excursion to a local sporting event and decided to divert the trip to Denny’s for a quick breakfast.

Four of us sat down at the table and each of us ordered bacon with our meals. You’ll notice the photo only contains one order of bacon. Two measly slices. Why not snap a picture of all the bacon orders you ask? Well, at a table with 4 bacon lovers the bacon disappears rather quickly. Too quickly for this slow camera man on this occasion in fact.

Well, I successfully guarded my bacon from getting swiped by my hungry table mates and can say that Denny’s bacon is of a moderate quality. It’s tasty, but nothing special. The bacon is prepared well but not to the level of my usual liking. I definitely give Denny’s the benefit of the doubt here though. They prepare such a wide variety of breakfast items and make no claim of any sort regarding their bacon.

For a 24 hour a day bacon fix, Denny’s will always remain a top choice. So says Nick, who enjoyed his Denny’s bacon very much…

The day M’Oink meatballs and Scott met:  “Imagine your favorite spaghetti and meatball recipe,” Scott says of the bacon-wrapped meatballs with blueberry sauce from BigMista’s BBQ. “Then wrap some freshly roasted bacon around it. You’ll then have a recipe for the ultimate adventure. The bacon was large and impressive, fully conquering the meatball and violating it with a bacon twist.”

Scott’s excitement for the dish resulted in accidentally spilling some of his topped-off beer into the bacon and meatball platter. The woman representing BigMista’s was not pleased at all. “She gave me the look of the devil,” Scott says. “I apologized, knowing that she perhaps didn’t appreciate my beer in her masterpiece.” The two would soon meet again, however, as Scott jumped right back in line for more bacon-flavored meatballs.

“Words of pure bliss and joy do not do justice to these bacon balls; they are good – damn good,” Scott says. “These could perhaps be the best bacon meatballs one would ever experience in a lifetime.”

Cynthia on bacon mac and cheese: “I hold Beachwood BBQ fully responsible for my bacon-induced coma,” Cynthia says. “Its mac and cheese was creamy, rich, and topped with a light sprinkling of breadcrumbs that really added a depth of texture to the dish.” She soon started noticing something very peculiar about the huddled crowd that was digging into their little cups of mac and cheese.

“While I watched fellow Yelpers inhale their food, I couldn’t help but notice their eyes were getting glassy, their movements were slower and they were all moaning ‘baaaacoooon’ in kind of a creepy way – like they were becoming bacon zombies or something. It seems that I wasn’t the only one in a bacon coma.”  Beachwood BBQ actually had to turn one Yelper away, because he kept coming back for more.

Other highlights:

Chocolate covered bacon: This delectable frozen dessert is making its OC Fair debut this year. Scott found the chocolate a bit too overwhelming, while Cynthia had nothing but praise. “One strip of crunchy bacon is just enough,” she says. “Try it with the salt packet it comes with. It really makes a huge difference.”

Scott and Cynthia caught Yelper and Garden Grove, Calif.-resident Jose Encino wearing a “Bacon Makes Everything Better” shirt, carrying a bacon wallet (did we mention his lovely lady friend was a vegetarian?) and enjoying his chocolate covered bacon. Bacon overload? We think not.

All in all, a very good time.

We were with a bunch of other folks so there were many opinions on where to dine. I had to run back to the hotel to make a couple phone calls and send a few emails so I told the others to go ahead and choose a restaurant. Imagine my suprise when they called me to say “meet us at TGI Friday’s”. Of all the places in New York we could have gone, they chose a chain restaurant I could find in any city. I was not pleased.

When I finally dragged my grumpy self into TGI Friday’s, I was delighted to find a couple other bacon lovers at the table. These were new folks to the group that I hadn’t met previously, and when I ordered the best looking bacon item on the menu — BBQ Bacon Shrimp — the pro-bacon conversation ensued and the evening took a decidedly positive note.

When the food arrived, it was presented quite well on a colorful plate with mashed potatoes and onion rings. The shrimp were served on skewers and had a small piece of bacon tightly wrapped around each of the little buggers. The whole shebang was drenched in tasty barbecue sauce and made for a pretty decent meal.

We give the TGI Friday’s BBQ Bacon Shrimp a Smaste™ rating of 26.102. I wouldn’t go out of my way to find a TGI Friday’s to order this meal, but if I was dragged to the restaurant again I wouldn’t be too saddened to order this meal.

When I looked at Erbert & Gerberts’ sandwich menu, I noticed there was only one item with bacon and it was a rather wild combintaion. “The Geeter” sandwich is a mix of seafood and bacon topped by lettuce, sprouts, tomato, and real mayo. Those of you who know me understand that I’m often a “hold the tomatoes” kind of guy, especially when it involves seafood so I left them off the sandwhich when I placed my order.

When the sandwhich arrived it was packed tightly in the deli wrapper. I was eager to dive in and take a bite.

Once the wrapper was off I was greeted with a fresh, soft French bread cocoon – the bacon patiently waiting within to make its debut.

At first glance I didn’t know what to make of the sandwich. The seafood mixture totally dominated the bacon peeking slightly from beneath. I was worried that this combination of seafood, sprouts, and bacon might not be a match made in heaven.

I flipped the sandwich over and tore off a piece of bacon to give it a taste. The bacon was well prepared and high quality. I was impressed. Now it was time to take a bite of the whole Geeter.

Much to my suprise, The Geeter is an incredibly delicious sandwhich. The flavor varieties played well against one another and I’d definately order this one again. The Geeter earns a Smaste™ rating of 38.431 and a bonus point for having such a cool name.

BaconFreak.com, the crazy site that gave us the phrase “Bacon is Meat Candy” has now also given us two new tasty bacon treats.

Bacon Jerky is not your Daddy’s jerky. These pork strips look and smell just like real bacon. They’re juicy, greasy and slightly fatty. Open up the vacuum-sealed 2 oz. bag and you’ll get a massive waft of bacon air. Put a strip in your mouth and you’ll think you’ve gone to Baconland, the land of magical bacony dreams. It’s just that good. In a non-scientific and largely inaccurate poll conducted by Corey and I, we found that everyone loves this stuff. (We did have one taste-tester who said, “this stuff should not be eaten… by anyone”, but we’ll just assume her tastebuds were on vacation that day.)

Next up is Maple Bacon Pancake Mix. Just as the name implies, it’s a pack of pancake mix with chunks of real bacon. The directions were easy enough – you add water and an egg, I think, mix it 15 or 20 times (so as not to overmix, as per the directions) and cook up some pancakes. If you do it right, they’ll look something like this…

I tried these pancakes without butter or syrup first and I was a bit shocked at how strange they tasted. The bacon was bacony, but also VERY smoky – more like beefjerky than like true bacon. This made the pancakes taste a bit like a long road trip instead of like a delicious weekend breakfast. Adding butter and syrup didn’t help much. I don’t want to say that these pancakes were bad, just that I didn’t care for them. You might like them a whole lot. Give them a try and let us know what you think.

Bacon Jerky Smaste™ Rating: 40.830

Maple Bacon Pancake Mix Smaste™ Rating: 23.458

– Mike