Porktoberfest offers treat for bacon lovers, extra sales for pork producers

As fall begins on P.E.I., restaurants are ready with the ultimate comfort food: bacon. 

Porktoberfest, a month-long celebration of Island pork, kicked off on Thursday. Twenty five restaurants have been challenged to create the ultimate bacon sandwich.

"It's a combination of all my staff's ideas, we put it all in a pot and decided this is what we're gonna do," said chef Patrick Young of the Dundee Arms Inn of his creation The Pig Kahuna.

The sandwich features miso-maple glazed bacon, slow braised pork loin and pineapple salsa.

"It's a real comfort food," Young added.

P.E.I.'s  pork producers can find comfort too. Porktoberfest, now in its fourth year, means brisk sales during a month when turkey is king.

"There have been over 25,000 individual dishes served and over 7,000 pounds of local pork consumed," said Melody Dover of Fresh Media, organizer of Porktoberfest.

Scott Dingwell, a pork producer and member of the province's hog marketing board, said pork belly, bacon and pork shoulder are hot in restaurants right now.

"Any time you can get Island consumers going out to a restaurant and buying a pork product of any kind, it helps."

Plus, he said, local producers make a better product than factory farms.

"Because of our Island grains and because of our specific Island genetics, we still do have that flavourful pork."

That's a long way of saying fat is flavour. 

"That's what the chefs have recognized and built on," Dingwell added. 

But don't expect monster sandwiches piled high with pork.

"It's not about putting a pound of bacon on a sandwich. It's about these chefs taking their creativity to the maximum to using bacon," said Dover.