El Cristalazo's Chilitos Cri Cri & Costa Azul at Big Bite Bacon Fest 2015

Big Bite Bacon Fest 2015 at The Queen Mary

Big Bite Bacon Fest returned to The Queen Mary in Long Beach for its second annual event this past weekend.  Expanded this year to three sessions across two days, the food festival offered bacon-y bites and craft beers from several dozen food purveyors and breweries.

This being my first time, though having attended quite a few events this year, I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively mellow the festival was.  To be clear, the event had plenty of people in attendance, but it wasn’t overcrowded, perhaps it was because we attended the Sunday session.  I could imagine the two Saturday sessions, particularly the evening one, being much more crowded.

As expected, just about all the food contained bacon, but surprisingly many—I’d say nearly half, roughly—were sweet preparations.  I wasn’t expecting that, and ended up being a bit sugared out halfway through the event!  Even my younger daughter, the sugar fiend that she is, reached her sweets limit quickly.

Probably the most decadent of the sweets was FryFry Food Truck‘s bacon-stuffed deep-fried Twinkies, with bacon crumble and chocolate sauce!  I could not finish the whole thing; it was just too much for me!

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I did enjoy some of the other sweets though.  My favorite was The Red Leprechaun‘s bread pudding with spicy bacon.  Since the sun was pounding on the outdoor festival, the Artesana Pops stand was also very popular with my family, and the rest of the crowd.  And, no, the mini paletas they were handing out did not contain any bacon.

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Of course, the most popular way to cool down from the sun was drinking beer!  I sampled quite a few and really enjoyed Acoustic Ale‘s Belgian-style blonde ale, The Groupie, but my favorite was probably Schöfferhofer‘s grapefruit-infused hefeweizen.

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Back to the food, recently revived throwback Naugles daringly served a non-bacon savory dish, carnitas with refried beans.  Having never been to the original Naugles, it did not have the nostalgia factor going for me.  I thought it was decent, but quite tame compared to the over-the-top dishes being served all around it.

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My favorite bites of the festival came from Mariscos El Cristalazo!  If you recall, I attended a preview dinner at El Cristalazo earlier this year and loved the fresh ceviches and interesting cooked dishes, including their Chilitos Cri Cri.  I was so glad they were serving it here, along with their Costa Azul, a dish I hadn’t had before.  Fresh out of the fryer, these bacon-wrapped goodies got my vote for best dish(es) of the fest!

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After the Big Bite Bacon Fest wrapped up, my family toured the Queen Mary cruise ship, which was a lot of fun, and helped walked off some of the calories we consumed.  We had a great time at the event as a family and hope to attend again next year!

For more from the Big Bite Bacon Fest, check out all my Instagrams from the event at #offalobacon.

El Cristalazo will also be at LA Weekly’s Burgers & Beer festival this Saturday, August 8th, serving their shrimp burger (I assume).  Can’t wait to try it!  Details on that event, including how to win a 4-ticket Buddy Pack, are on my August food festivals rundown post.


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