Bacon

by BS

March Madness 2012: America’s Best Drunk College Food

While the rest of you were obsessing over your brackets, Endless Simmer has been evaluating OUR favorite part of college: the food. Yep, we’re talking about that greasy, cheesy, meaty, bacon-y, over-the-top late-night goodness that can only be found in one place: college.

After much exhaustive research, and with March Madness just about to tip off, we’re ready to present our second annual list of all 68 NCAA tournament teams, ranked by their best drunk college food.

68. Montana: Hoagieville Cheese Fries

This esteemed establishment claims to have invented the idea of putting “taco cheese” on top of French fries. And yes, they are proud of that.

Hoagieville; Missoula, Montana (Photo: Hoagieville)

67. St. Mary’s: Chili Cheeseburger and Chili Fries

It’s like the drunk college version of Portlandia. How do you save a subpar burger? Put some chili cheese on it. How do you save some mediocre fries? Put some chili cheese on it.

Nation’s Giant; Moraga, California (Photo: Michelle N.)

66. Kentucky: MegaHo Burger

This triple-decker burger comes complete with gravy, cheese, jalapenos, mushrooms, bacon, tomato, pickle and lettuce. Only ranked so low because we have not confirmed that you can eat this and still walk out the door alive.

Tolly-Ho; Lexington, Kentucky (Photo: Tolly-Ho)

65. St. Louis University: The Slinger

A St. Louis tradition that is widely available at 24-hours establishments, although we find it hard to stomach that anyone would eat this before 3am: two fried eggs, a hamburger, a mound of hash browns, a sea of chili and a handful of cheese.

Courtesy Diner; St. Louis, Missouri (Photo: Zack Minarick)

Super Snacks: Poutine Potato Skins

At Endless Simmer we’re a little obsessed with all thing poutine. We eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We haven’t figured out how to turn it into a dessert just yet (any ideas??) but breaking news…we now have poutine as a handheld appetizer.

The idea for poutine potato skins came when I saw that Mile End — the champion of our tour de poutine — was offering these as a take-out Super Bowl snack. I made my version for Super Sunday as well, but I’m pretty sure they make sense for March Madness, too. Or St. Patrick’s Day. Or Easter Sunday. Or a random Monday morning.

These aren’t actually so different from regular potato skins; you’ve just got to pair the spuds with gravy and cheese curds, the other two elements of the holy trinity that make up poutine. The biggest hurdle, of course, is finding fresh cheese curds. In New York, I tracked them down at Saxelby Cheesemongers. For the gravy, I decided to go a little more American than the dark gravy usually found on Montreal poutine, and went with a white bacon gravy. Since I had to cook up bacon strips to produce that gravy, in the end I crumbled them up and added that to the top of the skins as well, because…yeah, I don’t have to explain myself there.

Poutine Potato Skins

Deep-Fried Avocado = Love

It’s no secret that we love avocado here at Endless Simmer. We also love ridiculous fried things. Hell, we’ve even attempted a marriage of the two, although the results were not pretty. As a dedicated ESer and food lover, I’m always on the lookout for yet more avocado creations to embrace, and I just experienced something that will forever change the way I look at sandwiches.

At Gourmands in East Austin, sandwiches are king. And by “king” I mean “GIGANTIC.” I took a chance on my arteries and ordered the Second Deadly Sin: Smoked turkey, bacon, swiss, fried avocado, sprouts, and pesto.

Yes, fried avocado!!! See that crispy, brown thing in the bottom left corner of my mountain of sandwich? FRIED AVOCADO.

I know it might not look like much from this picture, but I assure you, this is a thing of wonder. The best qualities of fried shit: crisp texture, warmth, salty grease — combined with the best of avocado: creamy, cool richness. Smashed onto a ton of meat. What’s not to love?! I hope more restaurants jump on this bandwagon.

in Bacon / Cheese / Fowl / Pig / Restaurants / Sandwich / Trends 5 comments

by BS

New Food Word Alert: Carnevoyeur

Move over, flexitarians. There’s a new ridiculous word for describing how people eat today. Via The Rambling Epicure:

A carnevoyeur is “a vegetarian who derives satisfaction from watching other people eat meat or hearing about the eating of meat.”

It refers to the type of person who says she’s a vegetarian and talks about it ad nauseum, but can’t resist asking if she can have a taste when she sees a plate of boeuf bourguignon or crispy fried bacon.

Know any carnevoyeurs?

in Bacon / Trends / Veggie 3 comments

by BS

Plate It or Hate It

Recent food world discoveries the ES crew is loving and hating

Plate It: Flashlight Grill Tongs

Problem: 60-degree February days means grilling season has started six months early, but it still gets dark outside at 5pm. Solution: Put a light on it! Available from homewetbar.com.

Hate It: Cup-a-Cake

Problem: You need to carry a single cupcake around with you all day, but just hate how the frosting gets all over everything in your purse. Wait, no…Really? Did this need to be invented?