Monday, September 8, 2014

Memphis Nosh: Bacon Lover's Dishcrawl!

It's Dishcrawl time again y'all!


That is literally how excited I was about this Dishcrawl. "Bacon Lover's"? Bacon at every stop? I'm in.

As you can probably tell by my "About Me" section, I really love bacon.

I really really love bacon.

So a Dishcrawl with bacon at every place, with bacon as the theme, surrounded by people who also love bacon, and hosted by the lovely Hollye of 381OhYum!

YES.

For those of you unfamiliar with Dishcrawl, it's a meet up of food lovers, adventurous eaters, and people who want to get to know their city better through eating and mingling, and it's awesome. Each crawl has a theme, you buy a ticket, 48 hours before you get an email about the first meeting place, and then each place after (3-4 places total) is a surprise. It's in a ton of cities across the US, and is fun to do at home or in other cities as a tourist!

On Monday, I got an email with exciting news - we were meeting a Bluefin, a Memphis favorite that I had sadly never been to before!


We ate in the upstairs, kind of communal dining area, and it was fantastic - love the atmosphere!

Our Dishcrawl guide, Hollye, gave us envelopes with strict instructions on how to open them.


There were a TON of new people at this crawl, so the "What is Dishcrawl?" info was super helpful. 


And then we got to read what were eating. 

I died.


BACON DASHI.




BACON DASHI PEOPLE.



If you think I picked that bowl up and drank the broth after I was done with the ramen you are 100% correct. I am not ashamed. 

Several people at my table also got cocktails. My friend Kim got a fantastic martini:


So I was pretty sure nothing could top bacon dashi, but we still had two more stops, so we all scooted out and headed toward our next restaurant....



(Also known as Belle Diner, but they're trying for a more "bistro" feel - I think either one is "correct" and either way it's so good. They won Battledish! last year!)

I love Belle, so I knew we were in for a treat.


Okay. Let's have some real talk. 

I love grits. 

I love duck.

I love bacon. 

I love any form of jalapeño popper.

Oh. My. Gravy.


Clockwise from the top: A little puff pastry with a bacon rosette (dipped in chocolate) that they added for us, the popper of the gods, shrimp with mango bacon salsa, and pork loin with collard greens. 


The popper was literally one of the best things I've ever eaten. 


This little bacon pastry was amazing.


I DO NOT like greens, but these were so good I could eat them every day.


I've been on a mango salsa kick since this. You can see why.


I clearly liked everything. Oh, and they gave us bread!

So at this point I'm so stuffed. Instead of just eating one or two bites like a sane person, I ate all the food. I was struggling. So full. Possibly on the edge of a bacon coma. But I knew we had one more stop. And as we headed back towards Main, I realized that we must be going to one of my favorite places, Local Gastropub.

Anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time at the Local in Overton Square. One of my really good friends is a bartender there (although he happened to be downtown this night - hi Matt!) and I know a lot of the staff and it's close to my house and I love it. I rarely get downtown but I was starting to get really excited.


So I haven't eaten a scallop in about 7 years. I had a bad experience. 


I ate scallops at a restaurant in Arkansas, which, yeah, was a bad plan. But this one was wrapped in bacon from a restaurant that I trust, so I resolved to do it.





Plus, combine a bacon wrapped scallop, a giant slab of pork belly (no Brussel sprouts, but that was okay) and a piece of the bacon blondie with a huge piece of candied bacon on top, and you have a very very happy Amber.

So I started with the scallop:


And it was AMAZING.

I may eat scallops again.

Just not in Arkansas.


Okay.


I use a lot of exaggeration sometimes. 

But when I say that this is the best single bite of food I've ever eaten in my entire life, I mean it. 


If you see pork belly on anything at Local GET IT.


The blondie was fantastic, but we all agreed it was so rich that that small piece was just enough. Definitely get the blondie to share!

Besides the food, I made a ton of new friends (I knew a few people there, but went alone - everyone had to work or had stuff going on that night) and had a really great experience. One of my favorite things about Dishcrawl is that you get to sit communally, so you can talk to people you would normally not meet - I met a woman who takes international biking tours and was on her first Dishcrawl, a really nice couple who talked about college with me (their son is a senior in high school), and finally got to sit with some other local bloggers and friends. Everyone is super friendly, the food is amazing, and you get to experience new things. The next one is October 1st in the Broad Avenue Arts District - GO!

Also bacon.

Never forget the bacon.


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