{"id":16841,"date":"2015-04-09T01:05:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T01:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/?p=16841"},"modified":"2021-10-28T16:35:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:35:48","slug":"biting-into-bacon-in-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/biting-into-bacon-in-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Biting into bacon in Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depending on what hot-versus-not report you read, some trendcasters will tell you America’s bacon craze is collapsing. Replaced by culinary celebs such as Brussels sprouts and heirloom carrots\u2014veggies are the plated power players du moment<\/em>\u2014the once-popular pig has lost its luster. Or has it?<\/p>\n

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In my recent travels I\u2019ve seen fewer bacon chips, bacon bits, and bacon jams adorning dishes, but I refuse to believe that the salty protein is on the out-and-out. Ever since its rise to gastro-glory in Portland<\/a>, bacon has reached a staple-status that\u00a0transcends trends. It has become the Levi\u2019s 501 jeans of the food world.<\/p>\n

Sipping on a bacon-infused beer from Oregon-based Rogue Ales at one of their downtown watering holes, I broach the topic of bacon with the barkeep. \u201cIt\u2019s not even a trend here; it never was,” he says. He goes on to add, “Portland<\/a>\u00a0is such a food-centric town<\/a>, [bacon] just comes with the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bacon sweets<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rogue\u2019s fastest-selling beer of all time is the Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale, a partnership with Portland\u2019s most iconic doughnut shop, Voodoo Doughnut. This doughnut shop was credited by\u00a0Eater Portland\u00a0<\/em>with\u00a0kicking off the \u201cnationwide bacon craze.\u201d It’s that good.<\/p>\n

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Voodoo’s maple bacon doughnut<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Voodoo was my first food stop when I visited the city six years ago, and I’ve returned many times since. The sweet spot became my Portland “food first,” due to my penchant for pig\u2014especially when paired with maple. I\u2019m not alone; the shop serving bacon maple doughnuts is so popular it has stadium-like corrals to wrangle hungry patrons into a lineup outside.<\/p>\n

Newcomer Blue Star Donuts couldn’t ignore Portland\u2019s crush on bacon, either. I took a bite out of its melt-in-your mouth real-maple bacon-topped treat and was immediately thankful there\u2019s a six-hour drive between my home city of Vancouver, B.C., and Bacontown (otherwise I\u2019d eat 20 a day).<\/p>\n

Portland has every other type of bacon-themed sweet you can imagine (and then some). There\u2019s maple jack bacon brittle ice cream at What\u2019s the Scoop? (I ate this for breakfast\u2014don\u2019t tell my mom); a bacon-topped macaron at Pix Patisserie; a boozy bacon milkshake at The Original Dinerant; and an upscale chocolate bar\u2014so upscale it\u2019s US$9\u2014at Xocolatl, blending bacon caramel with 72 percent cocoa from Ecuador. And this is only dessert. There is, of course, breakfast, lunch, and dinner bacon, too.<\/p>\n

Viewfinder Tip: Order bacon to go at many shops around Portland, including Olympia Provisions and Laurelhurst Market. <\/p>\n

Bacon in other forms<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Portland may get playful with the whole hog\u2014there\u2019s even a bacon-themed food truck, Bacon PDX\u2014this is only because the town\u2019s leading kitchens already have mastered the simple strip.<\/p>\n

Going way beyond ordering a stack of pre-cut bacon from a supplier and sizzling it to perfection on the stove top, in the modern-day birthplace of bacon, chefs go deeper. They know the farmers personally. They order the bacon fresh. Some even know the names of the pigs.<\/p>\n

Take Laurelhurst Market, a restaurant and butcher shop that serves four different kinds bacon. Each of the varieties is made in house. Buy it cured or smoked from the butcher shop, or eat it over Brussels sprouts with orange marmalade in the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The chefs and salumists at Olympia Provisions (formerly Olympic Provisions)\u2014a frontrunner in Portland\u2019s meat movement\u2014apply a similar philosophy to craft charcuterie. In addition to using a natural approach borrowed from the owner\u2019s Greek roots, chefs here smoke their bacon over applewood and serve it at restaurants and over the counter. For the record, Olympia’s BLT is the best I\u2019ve tasted anywhere.<\/p>\n

Finally, to breakfast. This is the meal that put bacon on the culinary map, the meal this city knocks out of the park. While it\u2019s hard to find a bad bacon brunch in town, my favorite is served at Tasty n Sons. Over six-minute eggs with Manchego cheese and bacon lardons (cured in house, of course), I\u2019m reminded that my favorite part of the pig has surpassed fad status. Culinary trends will come and go, but in Portland, bacon is to food what jeans are to fashion: a timeless staple.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

How do you like your bacon?
<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding out why pig rules the West Coast's hottest food town<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1782,1777,1816,1788,1857,1865,1776],"tags":[33],"authors":[2232],"class_list":["post-16841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","category-family","category-food-and-drink","category-interests","category-oregon","category-portland","category-type-of-vacation","tag-couples","authors-trip-styler","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBiting into bacon in Portland | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/biting-into-bacon-in-portland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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