Mike of The Food Monkey shares his thoughts about cooking, food history, restaurant trends, and any other Epicurean issues. He promises to discuss what tastes good, but not always what is in good taste. For more on consuming the opponents and other food news, go to the Food Monkey website. To contact Mike, go to the Food Monkey's contact page.

I have been knocked out of commission because of a cold and have spending my days incubating. It should be duly noted that:

Egg drop soup + Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce + Bacon Salt = Panacea of the Gods

Bacon salt is a vegetarian, kosher, fat free, wonder of science and Zeus that was formed by two guys, Justin and Dave, who had a dream of making everything taste like bacon without all the trouble of actually of having to cook anything. The most interesting part of their story is that their initial financing was achieved when the three-year-old son of one of the self-proclaimed "Baconpreneurs" won $5,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. You can see the winning video here.

Post contributed by Mike Prerau. More on the wonders of bacon salt after the jump! Image from the Food Monkey.

From the Bacon Salt site:

Several months ago, we launched our flagship products, Original, Hickory, and Peppered Bacon Salt. There will be more variations to come, we promise, but we think you'll really love what we've started with on a variety of everyday food items. Whether you're a regular griller or a gourmet chef, are counting calories or are a vegetarian who craves mouth-watering bacon taste without the bacon guilt, this is what you've been waiting for. Read More

As far as I can tell, Bacon Salt is Bac-os, salt, dried garlic, paprika, and dried onion all mashed up into a fine powder. What interests me is that I've heard stories of people replacing bacon with Bacos in recipes and ending up with soy-mush nastiness after it comes out of the oven. It seems, however, that you can use Bacon Salt as you would a regular spice and from my small bits of experimentation, it seems to work well and tastes great. There are a bunch of good recipes on the site, which you can check out here.

Anyhow, I'm hooked, and I can't wait to try the Hickory and Peppered flavors. While there is no substitute for the real thing, this is by far the best I have tried and a great addition to any spice rack.