Bacon Fest! Dayton, Ohio

BACON FEST!

It is starting to get into the “festival” time of year here in Ohio. For those who are uninitiated, Ohio has festivals starting in late summer that span until Christmas and we celebrate everything. There are blueberry festivals, peach festivals, corn festivals, potato festivals. Festival festivals. There are festivals for everything and everyone. And there was one that there was no way I was going to miss: BACONFEST! Seriously, it’s a festival about bacon. And in the festival, there were food stands from restaurants all around the Dayton area that made it a point to design dishes with bacon in them. Bacon pizza, bacon wrapped chili dogs, bacon and cheese fries, bacon empanadas. The list goes on and on. I wanted to try everything, but sadly I only have so much room in my stomach. Here are a few of the highlights though!

Featured here are bacon and cheese perogies. And here is an inside shot.

It is a little out of focus, but the inside was basically cheesey mashed potatoes with bits of bacon in them. They were awesome! The outside shell was fried perfectly. It was just crispy enough, but the breading underneath the crispy crust was nice and fluffy. And at two for three dollars, I could have eaten several of these, but I needed to save room for the other stuff we ordered!

And featured here is the bacon wrapped chili dog with a Bud Light. There is something magical about a cold light beer when its 95 degrees out. The chili was stout and mild, which was fine by me because the bacon and the hot dog itself was very savory. The hotdog was an all-beef frank and the bacon was wrapped all the way around the dog. On to the next item!

Featured here is a creamy white cheddar bacon mac'n'cheese. It was awesome! The cheddar was sharp but creamy and of course: bacon. Its a simple dish that packed lots of flavor. You don't really have to sell mac'n'cheese. Its always a good pick!

And here was an interesting dish. It's a sweet bacon crab po boy slider. To be honest, this was my least favorite dish that I had during the day. It's not to say that it wasn't good for some people, but the sweetness was a bit overpowering for me. It distracted from the other flavors. If you like a bit of sweetness in your sliders, this would be the sandwich for you. It wasn't for me however.

Selfie time with the kids! Taking a break to let some food settle before continuing on...

More family time!

A shot of the band. They played a lot of older country and 80s style hits. They were very good!

Now this gem. The name is a mouthful (haha), but it is a a spicy shrimp and bacon hollandaise grits dish on a fried green tomato with chives and a dash of hot sauce. But I think this was the highlight of the day. The dish was just layered with flavors and all of them complemented each other surprisingly well! And I am a sucker for fried green tomatoes. If you want to order this dish, go to ele Bistro and Wine bar. I am going to go and get the dish myself. I'm craving it as I sit here!

This slider. Let me tell you, this pulled pork slider was just amazing. The sauce was spicy, but not overly so. The pork was so soft is just melted in your mouth. The bun was perfectly soft. The bacon was crispy and was the perfect topping. And look at all of these awards! This should tell you a lot about how great this slider was.

And finally, here was my desert. I wasn't sure I could handle much more food, but then I spotted bacon fried plantains. If you know anything about me, you know that I love fried plantains. And bacon. And so naturally, bacon fried plantains were amazing! And the honey sour cream sauce was the perfect in every way!

After the plantains, I was done. I couldn't eat any more food, but I was full, satisfied and ready for a nap! I think I may have to make Baconfest a yearly tradition! There was so much more food for me to order and discover and just isn't possible to do in just one day. The kids were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa, and Erik got bacon, beer and barbeque, so he was happy as well. Time to find another festival for next week!

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