Taste Test – Epic Artisanal Pork Cracklings with Maple Bacon Seasoning

These pork cracklings from Epic a meat purveyor out of Texas were touted as artisanal. They were in fact a very nice crackling reminiscent of ones you would get down south.

I found the maple bacon flavoring to be superfluous, why add a bacon flavor to fried pork fat and skin?? The cracklings would have been better if just plain. They were crunchy with just the right ratio of fat to meat to skin that you like in a crackling. The bag was a bit powdery with each piece coated with pork dust which was mildly off-putting. Alex does not like cracklings while typically I enjoy them quite a bit. I rate these a mediocre 6 out of 10.

Hotel Review (Gaylord Texan Resort) – Grapevine, Texas

The Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas is a convention center just outside Dallas. Corporate headquarters for Deanfoods, my place of employment, is in Dallas so I traveled there to attend corporate meetings. Full days of meetings did not allow us much time to visit the city except for one dinner at a nice Texas barbecue but we did have time to enjoy the amenities of the resort. As it was 100 degrees in Dallas at the time I did not mind staying inside. The convention venue was top notch and the accommodations were what you would expect from a high end convention center. The rooms were facing inwards towards the atrium.

New photo by Wanderlust Family Adventure / Google Photos
New photo by Wanderlust Family Adventure / Google Photos
New photo by Wanderlust Family Adventure / Google Photos
New photo by Wanderlust Family Adventure / Google Photos
New photo by Wanderlust Family Adventure / Google Photos