Good Taste

I have a love-hate relationship with bacon. I love stand-alone bacon, crispy-fried on a side plate. But I hate bacon in my entrees; I don't do bacon in salads as a general rule, because then my entire salad tastes like nothing but bacon. I feel the same way about bacon in pasta. But every once in a while, I'll order a dish that includes bacon, forget to tell my server that I don't want the fried pig parts, and the way the chef has prepared the food is so tasty — and the bacony aspects are so subtle — that it almost makes me rethink my stance.

The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar has the perfect lecture/tasting session series combination for food schizophrenics like me. It's called Taste Test: Random Encounters in the History and Science of Food, and tonight's installment (the first) will tackle bacon. Admission to Bacon: A Chef, a Shopkeeper and a Bacon Dinner is $15 to $20; Taste Test runs every Thursday evening, starting with a reception at 6 p.m., through May 1; future sessions will revolve around salt, mushrooms and honey. The Lab is at 404 South Upham Street in Lakewood's Belmar; call 303-934-1777 or visit www.belmarlab.org/tastetest.php.
Thu., April 10, 2008