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" Americans can&amp;#039;t quit bacon. But like any committed relationship, things can get stale unless we&amp;#039;re finding a new way to spice things up. Back in June, a reader asked our columnist Josh Ozersky what was going to be the next Bacon Explosion and he answered that the pork lattice is a unique entity, not likely to be repeated in our meat-shortened lifetimes. Maybe we won&amp;#039;t find another four pounds of interwoven sausage and bacon that marries flavors as well. But after five years of the Bacon Explosion \u2014 it was fittingly introduced to the world two days before Christmas in 2008 \u2014 perhaps we&amp;#039;ll rediscover our pork lust courtesy of some other mound of crackling, fatty pig pieces. Since it&amp;#039;s International Bacon Day (Ford is celebrating by releasing a vinyl-wrapped Ford Fiesta with a bacon design for sale and Bacon Explosion inventor Jason Day made an appearance on Fox and Friends of all things) today, I set out to find our next great bacon love. And that journey began with Day in Kansas City, Missouri. &amp;quot;Nothing really surprises me anymore about the uses of bacon,&amp;quot; Day says. &amp;quot;But it has to be used right. People are becoming desensitized to the gratuitous use of bacon.&amp;quot;    Edwards Virginia Traditions   Edwards&amp;#039; hickory-smoked peppered Virginia bacon steak.  The bacon arms race is in full swing \u2014 the overall demand for the salty strips sent wholesale pork belly prices soaring earlier this month to $1.89 per pound (bellies have since dropped to around $1.40 per pound). In Surry, Virginia, Sam Edwards III, the third generation to run 87-year-old Edwards of Surry, is still looking for an economical, bacon replacement. And he thinks he may have found it with a pig part more likely to be at the bottom of a pot of greens than in the center of the plate: hog jowls. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s similar to bacon, a little fattier, so it&amp;#039;s richer,&amp;quot; says Edwards III of the cured and smoked pork cheeks. &amp;quot;Little short slices are perfect for hamburgers. And it&amp;#039;s cheaper.&amp;quot;  But even a third-generation ham man can be surprised by what chefs are doing with pork. Edwards III was recently at Husk Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, and had a plate of tender, barbecued pork tails set before him. &amp;quot;Sometimes you eat things just to try them, &amp;quot;Edwards III says. &amp;quot;But this is something I&amp;#039;d order again. Happily.&amp;quot; At chef Sean Brock&amp;#039;s restaurant, the tails are cooked in an oven and then finished on a grill so the fat renders and the cartilage breaks down. The end result is something akin to pork ribs.  &amp;quot;When I was growing up, one of the guys who worked here told me that his mother would take pork tails and put them in sugar water and mint. He&amp;#039;d let them marinate and then use them for chewing gum,&amp;quot; Edwards III says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never tried that because I know where the pig&amp;#039;s tail has been. But I could see how you could chew on that for a while.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a23750/bacon-explosion-successor-2013/>