Baconfest Tulsa 2013

Two weekends ago we drove up to Tulsa with our food adventure friends Joy and Dale to the first annual Baconfest Tulsa 2013.

Bacon, long ago discarded as simply a breakfast staple is now becoming a food group unto it itself as was proved in the taste tests we experienced perusing from booth to booth.

Consider us fortunate, as we tasted things like Maple bacon Popcorn, Bruschetta with Bacon Jam and Goat Cheese, Candied Bacon, Bacon Brittle, Bacon and Cheddar Sconelettes, and even a Savory Bacon Cheesecake. (If bacon jam sounds like your kind of thing! check out my recipe here)!

Tulsa restaurants, like Andolini’s (one of our favorites), The Rusty Crane, Fassler Hall and Back Alley BBQ set up under tented awnings outside 4th Street, between Utica and Peoria where the street was blocked off to traffic.

Never before have I had to sacrifice SO badly for a good cause. Sponsorships and entry fees go towards much needed capital improvements for one of Tulsa’s most dynamic independent arts organizations, the Nightingale Theater and Midwestern Theater Troupe.

Life is rough but someone has to eat bacon for charity.

The restaurants were all competing for the title of Boss Hog of BaconFest Tulsa 2013, which, arguably, ended up going to Dugan Jack’s Smokehouse, not very popular among latecomers as they ran out of food at their booth a mere hour and half into the four hour event.

Ticket buyers received a ballet to keep notes on and have marked off as they tasted. When finished tasting all the porky goodness, votes were cast via cell phone to a website and announced on Facebook later that day.

Adding to the festivities was a live music stage.

Also, it was humerous to see competitors in the Best Bacon Costume Contest strut around in their porky best.

Worth going to, I only hope that next year’s Baconfest 2014 Tulsa will be even better!