happy international bacon day!

since i couldn't play along on the actual holiday, i participated in my own special way a few days before by trying yet another new twist on my favorite food group: bacon tempura.

yes, in wan's world, bacon has its very own section in the daily required food pyramid.

a couple of girls on the nest boards and my buddy amber had all given me the heads-up on this tasty-sounding treat, experimented on by countless bloggers and served at red cat restaurant in NYC as an appetizer. i was, shockingly, excited at the prospect. come on - it's bacon. deep fried. all it needs is a stick, and it's the next big thing at the county fair. i'm actually surprised that it hasn't made its way there yet.

the recipe i decided to try was from the chef at that NYC restaurant. i had most of the ingredients except for this, which i picked up happily:

i don't typically have a need for the stuff, but for a measly $.78, i didn't hesitate to pick it up - even knowing i wouldn't do a damn thing with it after the 3/4 cup i'd need for the tempura batter (as usual, i was halving the recipe). and of course, sensing my disdain for it, when i twisted the cap off to measure it out, it exploded all over me and sprayed all over me and the kitchen. bitch ass.

i busted out the rest of the bacon left over from last week's bacon caramel/cinnamon roll extravaganza and cooked it till it was about halfway done.

then, as i mentioned before, i poured the bacon grease through a paper towel and into a mug. that's about all it takes to render bacon fat, which i thought sounded a lot more complicated than it was. and it was a lot less gross too, after i peered at the contents of the mug after it had all seeped through my makeshift filter. i thought it just looked like honey.

being too lazy to bust out my hand mixer, i had a stroke of genius and pulled out my little hot chocolate frothing device. i'm serious, that's what it is - it came with my hot chocolate pot that i got ages and ages ago. i love how i find all sorts of fun new uses for things that have a different purpose (like the baby food maker-turned-blender/food processor). i whipped up my lone egg white until it was frothy and formed soft peaks.

then i added some flour.

and that club soda:

it looked like this.

i heated up my oil to 375 degrees, the "deep fry" temperature - in other words, molten ass lava - dipped bacon pieces in my batter, and dropped them into the pan.

it didn't take long before they fried to a crisp and turned a lovely golden brown.

even after dipping all of my bacon pieces, i still had a shitload of batter left. damn. i was sad to pour it down the drain, but pour i did. 'twasn't as though i could use it later.

mmm. crunchy goodness.

oh, well. you can imagine what it looked like anyway, i'm sure. it's not like i didn't already take a zillion other pictures of the process.

we ended up eating it with a salad. haha! made it somewhat healthy, right? right?

[crickets]

okay, maybe there's really no way to spin deep fried bacon as anything even remotely good for you. but let me tell you - it was GOOOOOOOOOOOD. oh, boy.

try it. you'll like it!