baconfest chicago 2018: a brief review

another baconfest is in the books. this is good news for my system. the roasted broccoli i made yesterday is already calling my name because holy crap i've consumed a lot of bacon (and a lot of alcohol) these past few days. i'm just happy that i didn't wake up nearly as hungover as i thought i should've, given my whiskey intake. maybe the bacon canceled out the booze somehow? i doubt it, but i'm also not going to argue with whatever science or magic worked in my favor here.

speaking of favor: here are a few things, in no particular order, that i really enjoyed during the friday dinner and saturday lunch sessions at this year's baconfest:

• pork belly clay pot from the roaming hog. i need this food truck to come to the city so i can eat all of the things. so many of us raved about this dish during friday night's session that i'm still kinda shocked that they didn't win the people's choice or golden rasher award. 
• bacon and fried chicken ramen from honey butter fried chicken. full disclosure: i had a bacon-less version of this ramen a while back when the hbfc homies had it on special and omfg that broth. i could drink that broth every day. why am i not drinking that broth every day? if a cup of that broth magically appeared as i type, i'd be 1) pleasantly surprised because i know honey butter is closed on mondays and 2) thrilled because i would so down that broth right now. honey butter won the golden rasher award for the saturday lunch session and i'm guessing that the judges felt the same way i do about that broth because omfg.
• bacon-stuffed chicken wing from burger bar. more full disclosure: i've had their wings, sans bacon, more times than i can count right now, so when i saw this on the baconfest lineup, i knew i had to try it. y'know, for science and quality control purposes. the bite i got was a boneless wing, but apparently there were actual bone-in wings (as god intended!) that the crew decided not to clue me in on. this is fine. i know where they work. they know i'll be in for wings and house wine (aka jameson).
• baconchetta from whirlyball. i know some folks from #thatsite may be reading this and yes, i totally said "you can whirl these balls, bitch!" under my breath when i made it to whirlyball's station. give me bacon and mango/cherry chutney and whipped goat cheese and you are pretty much guaranteed to have a happy customer on your hands because i love all of those things. 
• iberico bacon. this was so good that i totally spent $7 on a 8oz package to take home and stash in my freezer. i regret nothing. 
• bacon crack from nosh this. i had a sample of this friday night and before the saturday lunch session was over, i was handing them money for a bag of it because if you're able to successfully combine two of my favorite foods, you deserve my support. we'll see if this bag, which is still unopened as of this writing, makes it through the week.