Hogs for the Cause

We weren't able to attend Hogs in 2017 or 2018, but we made it happen this year. We were only able to go the first day, so we finally got to experience Bacon Night. Nopsi came with us (Nola was in France with Uncle Bill and Aunt Elena visiting QP and James), as did Uncle Jeff, Aunt E, Kate, and Luke for their first time. 

The event is now held on UNO's campus right by the Lakefront Arena. They moved locations after the pig pen we all slogged through back in 2016. Things didn't seem quite as spread out as they were in City Park, but there was still an impressive amount of teams out there cooking up amazing BBQ dishes, all for a great cause. 

We got out there around 5pm on a cloudy and breezy day. It ended up being quite cool, and we were worried about rain, but it fortunately stayed dry. We set up a home base right next to two bouncy slides, which kept the kids entertained until dark, and the adults took turns venturing around the grounds to decide which dishes we wanted to try. Hogs went cashless this year: everyone got a RFID band tied to their credit card, which made things so easy and seamless. 

One thing we all agreed on was that Bacon Night wasn't super bacon forward. The good thing about going on Friday was that it was way less crowded than Saturday usually is, but we didn't feel like we had lots of bacon. We also thought it was comical that Bacon Night was taking place on a Friday during Lent, in a very Catholic-heavy city. 

However, we did have a number of excellent things. Everyone's top dish was the kung pao bacon from Team Porkchoupitoulas. It was so different and so good. We also really liked the Cuban sandwich from Goutte Que and the banh mi-LT from Swine & Stein. Other things we tried was the pork mac-n-cheese from Captain Porkenheimer, jambalaya from Beers Fly When Pigs Die (Riley's dinner), a hot dog from Deuce Pigalow Pork Gigolo (Rory's dinner), and bacon kingcake from I don't remember where. Riley and Kate also got Dippin' Dots, and Jeff tried Mexican street corn, which tasted like feet.  

Overall, I'm really glad we had the chance to go, but I think in the future we'll go on Saturday if we're able. Happy Good Friday, y'all!