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Andrew Sun

I have an issue with bacon.
Don’t get me wrong. I really like cured pork belly at home, with breakfast, in a club sandwich, crumbled into a Caesar salad, or rendered for frying potatoes. Versatile and savoury, it adds a flavour kick to everything it is paired with.
But it is precisely because of its deliciousness, ability to boost taste and tendency to dominate less robust ingredients that I don’t tend to order anything with bacon when I dine out. In my mind, adding bacon is too easy a way to enhance flavour.
Although they didn’t necessarily call it bacon back then, it has been with us for centuries. The Chinese salted and cured pork belly as far back as 1500BC. Pigs were domesticated by then in Europe, but Romans and Greeks learned techniques to make bacon only after forays into, ironically, the Middle East.

Fast forward to the present day, and bacon is a breakfast staple, with 70 per cent of the stuff in the United States eaten in the morning. In a year, Americans consume an average of 18 pounds (8kg) per person. That’s a lot of salty, fatty goodness.
Personally, I think of bacon as the gastronomic equivalent of dropping the “F” bomb in a sentence. It’s bold, direct, and in your face, which is also why it’s powerful. The ingredient equivalent to an expletive can be dropped anytime, anywhere, to intensify anything.

A chef who uses bacon too much is like someone who swears all the time. Over-repeating the “F” word reduces its impact. There’s no shock value any more. Instead, you just sound like an uncouth illiterate who lacks a decent vocabulary.
There are kitchens where the “F” bomb is used a lot. Some of them cook a lot of bacon, too. When a fine-dining chef does this, it feels like he or she is taking short cuts (and I’m extending this to pancetta).
If I see a bacon dish served at a swanky restaurant, I can’t help but think the kitchen is lazy, and the restaurant is therefore diminished in my eyes. The only question is whether it’s a lack of ambition or a creative shortcoming.

Bacon is added to practically everything these days. It’s wrapped around asparagus and cooked with Brussels sprouts to make veggies more appealing, or mixed into sweets such as chocolate, jam and maple syrup. Mixologists also concoct “fat-washed” cocktails, infusing bacon into bourbon, whisky and Bloody Marys.
It all sounds good, of course. But what wouldn’t sound good with bacon? The thing is, the over-reliance is starting to feel like a comedian who too often yells “f**k” to get an easy laugh. Over-indulging in the same ingredient just makes food boring AF.
When a chef actually tries something different and inspired, everything tastes so much better and more intense. Recently, I was at a Chinese banquet restaurant which served a scallop and asparagus stir-fry with julienned strips of Chinese sweet pork jerky (also known as bak kwa).
I’ve never seen that done, and it feels quite experimental and radical. But the result was delicious.

I’ve snacked on bak kwa for most of my life and it never occurred to me to cook with it. But it makes so much sense as a bacon alternative (and also as a substitute for the Chinese staple Yunnan ham). The sweetness of the dried jerky is a surprising and unexpected delight.
Now I am considering swapping bacon for bak kwa with scrambled eggs, on mac and cheese, with sauerkraut, in a fusion baked potato, and maybe even on a blue cheese burger.
I’m sorry, bacon. I still love you, but maybe it’s time we take a break to see other people.


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Food and Drinks

Bacon is delicious, but it’s an overused short cut for chefs to add flavour without getting creative. How about using bak kwa instead?

Grilled green asparagus wrapped with bacon - an overused ingredient these days, in columnist Andrew Sun’s opinion. Photo:   Shutterstock

Bacon has been overdone. How about we start experimenting with other porky snacks, like bak kwa (above), a Chinese sweet pork jerky? Photo: Shutterstock

Broccoli bacon salad. Bacon adds an undeniable flavour boost to any dish it features in. Photo: Shutterstock

Grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon. These days, bacon is added to practically everything. Photo: Shutterstock

“Fat-washed” tipples have become a recent mixology trend, infusing bacon in whiskies and more. Photo: Shutterstock

A salted caramel bacon brownie. Bacon even appears in desserts these days. Photo: Shutterstock

Given gas stoves’ health risks, will Chinese food cooks sacrifice ‘wok hei’ flavour for safety? I highly doubt it

Proponents of gas stoves argue that there is no better method to create the smoky “wok hei”, or “breath of the wok” flavour. Photo: Shutterstock

A vendor prepares food in Bangkok’s Chinatown, in Thailand. Photo: Shutterstock

Gas cookers release methane and other pollutants. Photo: Shutterstock

Induction stoves waste very little energy compared with gas stoves. Photo: Shutterstock

No restaurant can afford lazy, brainless service staff – but that’s the reality when so few want to work in hospitality

No restaurant can afford lazy, brainless service staff – but that’s the reality when nobody wants to work in hospitality. Photo: Shutterstock


Tourists and locals have lunch in a busy noodle soup restaurant in the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

There’s no prestige and little pay in the hospitality industry, and not many people aspire to become a server. Photo: Shutterstock

Like with Canada, Michelin’s Malaysia guide again shows it has no place judging countries where it doesn’t understand the local cuisine

If you want the best bak kut teh (pork ribs soup) in Malaysia, would you turn to the Michelin Guide? Photo: Getty Images

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Home-cooked Malaysian dishes for sale at a street market stall in Kota Kinabalu. Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Everyone loves bacon, but it’s in everything these days from salads to desserts, and its overuse by chefs after a quick flavour boost shows a lack of creativity
It’s time to experiment with other porky treats like bak kwa, a Chinese sweet-salty snack similar to pork jerky, as a tasty alternative in bacon-centric dishes


Bacon’s deliciousness has led it to be overused by chefs, so it’s time to explore other porky treats. Bak kwa, the Chinese sweet-salty snack similar to pork jerky, would surely make a more interesting alternative.


Asian recipes

Asian Cuisine

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Mouthing Off

Mouthing Off | Bacon is delicious, but it’s an overused short cut for chefs to add flavour without getting creative. How about using bak kwa instead?