Bacon Week is Des Moines’ Lupercalia or, more literally, our Fastnacht – a series of pig outs preceding the fasts of Lent. Iowa celebrants are more apt to wear hog costumes than goatskins but the soft underbelly of this state’s most plentiful mammal provides inspiration for a week of excess and decadence that has been celebrated since the days when satyr gods partied with mere mortals.
Like all great excesses, Bacon Week actually began several weeks ago with a Bacon Elegance dinner hosted by Splash and cooked by Dom Iannarelli, a chef who never needed an excuse to indulge voluptuary urges. Splash itself was looking more decadent than ever. Its chairs have been reupholstered with red ostrich hides.
Dinner began with a cocktail hour featuring Peace Tree’s Red Rambler beer and three kinds of oysters – Bienville, Rockefeller and Casino. Having been told that “there was never enough bacon” at previous dinners, Iannarelli replaced bread baskets with bacon baskets – one of Farmland bacon and another of sesame crusted, candied bacon from Jethro’s. The latter were wrapped in baby bunt linens, as if first born piglets were being sacrificed to the gods of fertility. Maple glazed bacon biscuits and bacon butter were then served as a first course.
This year’s festival carries a Viking Quest theme that was honored in several courses. Gravlax (raw cured salmon) were served in a pâté with a bacon arugula salad in a cucumber bowl drizzled in wasabi dijon vinaigrette. That was paired with an herb infused Aquavit vodka cocktail.
Next came a stew of scallops, Prince Edward Island mussels, shrimp and several kinds of clams, some as large as oysters. They all swam in a cream sauce inside a bowl of toasted Icelandic rye bread. That was paired with Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale.
Bacon and crab rangoons were served with chile sauce, lemon zest and micro greens.
Then came a marvelous course of giant shrimp ravioli en brodo with sweet pea and sweet corn succotash. That was paired with a Jean Marc Brocard Kimmeridgeon 2008, which sommelier Ben Nelsen described as a declassified Chablis and “a great bargain” at under $15 in liquor stores.
The evening’s piece de resistance were jars of shark rillettes. Shark meat was poached in its own fat and stored with a combination of pork belly lard and rendered butter to be spread on toast points.
Vikings were fully satiated but next came a surf & turf course of bacon-wrapped lobster cake and a grilled sirloin – bacon pressée plated on a wild mushroom fondue with basil mashed potatoes. That was paired with a Jean Paul Picard Rouge 2010 in which Pinot Noir dominated the blend. Bacon wrapped sausages, soaked in Templeton Rye, appeared as a sadistic intermezzo before a final course tempted folks to break their personal caloric intake records.
Maple, pecan and bacon ice cream was served in giant home made cones with bacon brittle and paired with Bell’s double cream stout.
Bacon Week is Des Moines’ Lupercalia or, more literally, our Fastnacht – a series of pig outs preceding the fasts of Lent. Iowa celebrants are more apt to wear hog costumes than goatskins but the soft underbelly of this state’s most plentiful mammal provides inspiration for a week of excess and decadence that has been celebrated since the days when satyr gods partied with mere mortals.Like all great excesses, Bacon Week actually began several weeks ago with a Bacon Elegance dinner hosted by Splash and cooked by Dom Iannarelli, a chef who never needed an excuse to indulge voluptuary urges. Splash itself was looking more decadent than ever. Its chairs have been reupholstered with red ostrich hides.
Dinner began with a cocktail hour featuring Peace Tree’s Red Rambler beer and three kinds of oysters – Bienville, Rockefeller and Casino. Having been told that “there was never enough bacon” at previous dinners, Iannarelli replaced bread baskets with bacon baskets – one of Farmland bacon and another of sesame crusted, candied bacon from Jethro’s. The latter were wrapped in baby bunt linens, as if first born piglets were being sacrificed to the gods of fertility. Maple glazed bacon biscuits and bacon butter were then served as a first course.
This year’s festival carries a Viking Quest theme that was honored in several courses. Gravlax (raw cured salmon) were served in a pâté with a bacon arugula salad in a cucumber bowl drizzled in wasabi dijon vinaigrette. That was paired with an herb infused Aquavit vodka cocktail.
Next came a stew of scallops, Prince Edward Island mussels, shrimp and several kinds of clams, some as large as oysters. They all swam in a cream sauce inside a bowl of toasted Icelandic rye bread. That was paired with Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale.
Bacon and crab rangoons were served with chile sauce, lemon zest and micro greens.
Then came a marvelous course of giant shrimp ravioli en brodo with sweet pea and sweet corn succotash. That was paired with a Jean Marc Brocard Kimmeridgeon 2008, which sommelier Ben Nelsen described as a declassified Chablis and “a great bargain” at under $15 in liquor stores.
The evening’s piece de resistance were jars of shark rillettes. Shark meat was poached in its own fat and stored with a combination of pork belly lard and rendered butter to be spread on toast points.
Vikings were fully satiated but next came a surf & turf course of bacon-wrapped lobster cake and a grilled sirloin – bacon pressée plated on a wild mushroom fondue with basil mashed potatoes. That was paired with a Jean Paul Picard Rouge 2010 in which Pinot Noir dominated the blend. Bacon wrapped sausages, soaked in Templeton Rye, appeared as a sadistic intermezzo before a final course tempted folks to break their personal caloric intake records.
Maple, pecan and bacon ice cream was served in giant home made cones with bacon brittle and paired with Bell’s double cream stout.
