New Year’s, shmew year’s – Saturday is National Bacon Day!

Sunday too long to wait for the next big holiday celebration?

You’re in luck, because Saturday is National Bacon Day.

For many of us, every day is a day for bacon. Because as the Days of the Year site argues, “There’s nothing in this world that doesn’t taste better with bacon. Whether it’s chocolate-covered bacon from the confectioners shop, bacon cheeseburgers, bacon-wrapped tater tots, or even bacon (lip balm), you can’t deny that it’s a delicious tasty treat that’s truly gotten it’s fingers in everywhere.”

The National Today site recommends celebrating Bacon Day in ways like ordering bacon pizza, buying bacon-covered doughnuts or eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Bacon pizza is commonplace now, almost as much as bacon cheeseburgers. Prepackaged bacon-wrapped hot dogs are popping up in more grocery stores. And the doughnuts have been around long enough they raise fewer and fewer eyebrows.

Popular Modesto doughnut shop Mr. T’s has had bacon-topped maple bars and chocolate bars on its menu for at least five years, employee Odalys Lopez estimated Friday morning. It didn’t take customers long at all to warm up to the sweet and salty treat. “People just see bacon and go straight at it. It’s like breakfast in a doughnut,” she said.

Sales of the bacon bars are strong, she said. “Those sell really good. There’s times they come out hot and within an hour they’re all gone.”

Locally owned O’Brien’s Market, which has locations on Dale Road and Roseburg Avenue in Modesto and Oakdale Road in Riverbank, also serves some tasty bacon treats, said deli employee Michele Looper at the Dale Road store. “We have a Breakfast Bacon Bacon Panini,” she said. It’s a scramble of bacon and onions, almost like an omelet, she said, topped with bacon and served on a ciabatta roll. “We also have our Bountiful Broccoli Salad with bacon in it that is very popular.”

National Today surveyed 1,000 Americans to get their thoughts on bacon. “According to the survey, 21 percent of Americans say that if they had a choice, they would eat bacon every day for the rest of their lives,” reports the TV station CBS Philly. “Sixteen percent of Americans asked said they couldn’t live without bacon, while 18 percent say that bacon is their favorite food. Only 4 percent of Americans asked in the survey don’t like bacon.”

In another report on the survey, NBC affiliate 9News in Colorado said participants also were asked about “authentic” bacon. Nineteen percent said turkey bacon isn’t real bacon, and 17 percent said the same about Canadian bacon.

For more on National Bacon Day, the history and various types of bacon, and “sizzling” bacon facts (“Bacon grease was used to make explosives during WWII”), go to www.holidayscalendar.com/event/national-bacon-day.

This story was originally published December 29, 2017 at 11:14 AM with the headline "New Year’s, shmew year’s – Saturday is National Bacon Day!."