Bacon and Beer Classic Review

In the movie "Field of Dreams" the big question was who would come to an empty baseball field. At yesterday's Bacon and Beer Classic held at San Jose's Municipal Stadium, there were no such questions. Take an empty baseball field, and then add plenty of beer and bacon-inspired dishes from local restaurants and lots of people will show up.

While there were plenty of great bacon dishes, my favorite one from the evening were the bacon tacos from California Café of Los Gatos. Made with candied bacon, Meyer lemon crème fresh, cherry stout barbecue sauce, and chile arbol slaw, these deceptively simple looking tacos where simply a flavor explosion of hot, sweet, savory and smoky. They were only slightly better than the pork belly and chorizo "lollypops" California Café was also serving up. Other notable dishes included smoked pork belly and biscuits served up by Faultline Brewery Company and a creamy, smoky bacon guacamole from San Jose's Loteria Taco Bar. It also helped this guacamole was about the only vegetable at the entire festival.

As for beer, the South Bay was well represented by Faultline Brewery Company, Strike Brewing, Gordon Biersch and Santa Clara Valley Brewing.

Finally, for dessert there was plenty of choose from. Campbell's Kindred Cooks passed out some addictive bacon caramels. San Jose's Sweet Tooth Confections served up two luscious cupcakes. A Chocolate Bacon Cupcake and a Stout-flavored Black and Tan Cupcake with bacon bits sprinkled on top. And Psycho Donuts was there with their popular Squeal Meal donut holes, a one-two punch of glazed donuts sprinkled with bacon.

One of the most enjoyable and unique beer festivals I’ve ever attended and a heart-stopping event in more ways than one. I’ll leave you with some pictures of the evening.