S.J. festival honors bacon.
Rebranded festival in fourth year offers bacon on the cob, bacon ice cream tacos and ‘Elvis Goes To Heaven’
SAN JOSE — For the lovers of processed pig meat, fans of what was once a morning side complementing an eggy or pancaked main order, there’s no wrong time or place for a bit of bacon.
Or a lot of it. Sushi topped with bacon. Bacon on the cob. Bacon ice cream tacos and the “Elvis Goes To Heaven” — a cupcake with banana, chocolate, peanut butter and bacon.
“It is unusual,” said Brian Vail, a purveyor of cupcakes
who brings out the big bacon guns for the Baconland festival since its inception four years ago. “But for the bacon people, they can’t get enough and the more unusual the better.”
Indeed, the Elvis cupcake was the first to sell out. By 3 p.m. Sunday Vail had sold 700 of the 850 cupcakes he brought to the festival.
“There are a couple we sell year round — the maple bacon, or the triple chocolate bacon,” he said. “But the rest of the bacon flavors, they’re special. Just for the bacon people.”
Formerly called the Bacon Festival of America, Baconland has been nomadic, starting out at the Night Market grounds before landing at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez and now History Park.
And it used to be a multiday affair, but now is paired with the Taco Festival of Innovation, which took place Saturday. And it’s on the other side of the summer season than it’s been traditionally held: The early events were a Labor Day affair, not a Memorial Day deal. But the product hasn’t changed, and more than 20 food trucks were on hand, as well as live bands and Mexican wrestling performances.
While some of the trucks were more devoted to porcine offerings — “The Hogfather” truck’s slogan is “Pork you can’t refuse” — others simply added bacon to their usual fare. Like pad thai with bacon on top, or the tater tots with bacon and cheese mess available at multiple trucks.
Angel Santos of the Caliente truck said he developed something earlier that day just for the festival: A cob of corn, slathered with mayonnaise and hot sauce that serves as the glue to hold chunks of bacon in place.
“I was feeling inspired,” he said about the creation.
Jonathan Lynch, of San Francisco, aka “Bacon Daddy,” was dressed up as his favorite food for the day. He usually works in the green energy field but for the four nearby bacon festivals — the other ones are in San Francisco, Napa and Monterey — he’s Bacon Daddy, an advocate for sustainable hog farming.
And a very big advocate for the end product. He describes bacon on the cob as being a masterpiece of Chinese hot sauce, Australian cut bacon (it comes in big chunks, hacked off by hand) and aioli. He said that San Jose’s festival is more interesting than some of the other bacon events, with greater diversity in offerings.
“You’ll find a lot more of the Tex-Mex style bacon here,” he said. “And Asian bacon, all diced up. People express their love for the pig pork belly in different ways.”