Yes, I prefer my bacon “straight” too, but I’m fascinated by the new bacon excesses that seem to pop up all the time. Most of them seem as random (there’s that word again) as deep-fried cheesecake-- you know, if something’s good, add some batter, oil, and powdered sugar and it’s even better. Yuck.
I rarely eat anything (deep) fried apart from fries and I also don’t understand this obsession with deep-fried stuff. I mean, trying a deep-fried mars bar was fun once (and after all it’s Scotland’s official dessert) but in the end it’s about as interesting as gigantic burgers or the “foam” trend - not very.
One time when I was a kid, maybe 10 or 12 yrs old, I wandered into a greasy spoon in Brooklyn, called Dard’s, for bacon and eggs. I was the last person in there for breakfast, and the cook (I was at the counter) got impatient and tossed the bacon right into the deep fryer. I was appalled… until I saw the bacon on my plate. It’s was… perfect! Uniformly crisp and golden, slightly puffed, yet somehow less greasy than if it had come off the griddle. I can’t imagine trying it at home, but I’d love to try that again.
If Steve and I ever get our sh!t together for a trip home to NYC, tempura bacon is on the agenda!