(sizzling)
- Season four.
Who would have thought we would have got this far?
- Hey, four seasons.
Like Vivaldi.
(humming)
Can't believe you chose that apron.
- Comment below.
Who wore it better?
- I think the answer is pretty clear.
- Oh yeah?
Yeah, I don't think it'd beat this.
(classical music)
Bacon.
Today on Worth It we're going to be trying
three excellent forms of bacon
at three drastically different price points
to find out which one is the most worth it at its price.
- I'm excited.
Bacon is a great food.
- I'm not actually that excited about this episode.
- Really?
- Yeah.
It's just overrated.
- The smell and the sound and the way it tastes.
- I get it, but sometimes it's a little bit of an overload.
- I can definitely understand that.
(sneeze)
- For this episode we are going to be trying
three bacons not only at three price points,
but in three different cities.
Road trip.
Sky trip.
Home trip.
- Yeah. Great.
- We're going to Palm Springs, baby.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name's Tara Lazar.
I own Cheeky's.
- [Andrew] How did Cheeky's come to be?
- I was sitting in front of a computer day trading
and I really wanted a place to eat breakfast.
I'm from Palm Springs, so I thought
let's open a breakfast place.
- You're kind of famous, I guess, for you bacon.
How did the bacon flight come to be?
- I like different kinds of bacon
and I didn't want to have to choose.
When we do bacon flights, we pick five different flavors.
We change our flights every week.
This week one of the flavors is miso butter.
Miso has a really nice salt content
so when you make bacon you typically need a salt and a sweet
even if it's not gonna be a sweet bacon.
The other one is rosemary sugar.
That's fresh rosemary and chop it up
and just put some brown sugar and salt.
We bake almost all of our bacon.
It's like the most even way
of creating a perfect slice of bacon.
- Now what is your opinion on crispy versus more tender?
- Such a crispy girl.
How about you guys?
- I do prefer a little bit of a chew.
- I just don't want to fight my food.
- Right.
He wants it crispy.
Easy to chew, easy to swallow.
- Adam sometimes doesn't get fed enough food on the show.
- Should we try to make him something
that makes him feel special?
- I think so.
- We're kind of the breakfast expert, so.
- Okay, why don't we leave that up to you?
- Okay.
- I like that this feels like science.
- Yeah.
Cheers.
- Tart but delicious.
- [Steven] Bacon time.
- I kind of like eating a strip of bacon with my hand.
Are you okay with that? - Same.
Yeah.
- I have lots of cat scratches on my hands, though.
Is that okay Adam?
- Wait, you have a cat?
- I don't, but I interact with cats frequently.
(laughter)
I found a cat.
It won't be my friend.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Whoa.
I've never had bacon like this before.
- That is great.
- It's neither chewy nor crispy.
It's chewspy.
It does taste like a warm bowl of miso packed into bacon.
That's a good appetizer.
- Yes.
- Let's bring out the next one.
Rosemary bacon.
Wow.
Crispy outside.
Chewy inside.
There's pockets of fat drooling.
My favorite thing is when foods drool
because they realize how good they taste.
Oh, oh no.
- That's my favorite.
Rosemary, top three herbs easily.
- Holy crap, that was like the best slice
of bacon I've ever had.
I can die happy now.
- It's time to take flight with the bacon flight.
Beeler apple cinnamon, miso butter,
rosemary sugar, and a simple smoked one.
Also, a jalapeno.
This has got to be the way to go, right?
- It's got to be the cheapest flight you've ever taken.
- Oh, man.
That's the one.
It's so good.
It's like the best jalapeno kettle
cooked potato chip I've ever had.
Cause it's bacon.
- You full? - I feel good.
- Should we finish that one?
- Sure.
- Or give it to Adam?
(cheerful music)
- That was an oh man on the Adam scale.
- [Adam] Oh man.
- Don't say we never feed Adam.
- Can I get some of that?
(laughter)
Oh my god.
(laughter)
Alright.
Back to L.A.?
- In a minute.
- The bacon flight.
She's been doing it for 10 years.
Where were you in 2007?
At the prom.
- No telling.
- Yeah, you were at prom.
- I'm not telling.
- You were dancing. What were you
doing 10 years ago?
Playing RuneScape?
- Why as a matter of fact I was.
- I pick Cheeky's.
- I already picked Cheeky's.
I really like Tara.
(laughter) What?
Why are you laughing at that?
You didn't like Tara?
- Bacon fact.
What we call Canadian bacon is actually
pork loin or back bacon, which means
that's it's technically not the same as U.S. bacon,
which is made from pork belly.
- It makes sense cause Canada is on the back of America.
- Yeah.
- American bacon, Canadian bacon.
You're looking at the complete pig right there.
So now we're on our way to Manuela.
- Getting something called a BLT.
Bacon, lettuce, tomato.
- It's a sandwich.
- You know, I accept BLTs.
- News flash, most people accept BLTs.
Their main ingredient is bacon.
- My name's Christian Truong.
I'm the chef de cuisine at Manuela
restaurant in downtown L.A.
- [Andrew] What sort of restaurant is Manuela?
- Kind of Spanish flair.
I wouldn't say Tex-Mex, but along that line.
We do local ingredients.
Our menu changes daily depending on what
we get from the farmers market.
- Today we're gonna be having your BLT.
What are all the steps going into delivering that dish?
- Getting the bread on the grill.
Little char on it so you'll have that char flavor.
Mayo, tomato, and some greens.
- The bacon you cure in house?
- Yes.
- Curing is like this thing that
I always hear happens to food.
- You're pulling a lot of moisture out,
preserving that meat there.
It changes the flavor, the texture.
So when you cure it with salt, sugar, maple syrup
for about five days then wash it off,
air dry it, and smoke it for about three hours.
I think a BLT is just a simple but really good sandwich.
So in this case we want to make the bacon shine.
- [Andrew] How much bacon is going on this sandwich?
Is it like a pretty tall stack or what?
- [Christian] It's five slices.
I think it's just the perfect amount.
- So what do you have?
- I have the prettiest michelada
I've ever seen in my whole life.
A little corny shone rammed into an olive.
I'm gonna name a cat corny shone someday in my life.
- I've never been a big fan of micheladas.
- It's a difficult taste to acquire.
Like if tastes were Pokemon, you would need
a master ball for the michelada.
- Cheers.
Fresh squeezed, fresh made.
Oh yeah.
That's some good, good juice.
- Let's have this sandwich. - Okay.
- Because I watched this thing
get made and I was blown away.
- Favorite part of that process?
Go. - Easily the meat slicer.
- Same.
- Some people aspire to own luxury cars.
You know, your Mercedes-Benz.
I want to pay a premium to get
that hand cranked meat slicer.
- Let's eat this BLT.
Mm.
I am sorry for all of the wrong
things I said about bacon today.
Bacon is good and not overrated.
- This bacon is at the perfect
point between crisp and tender.
- Draw a graph.
Crisp, tender.
It's right on that line.
You go off that line and you look like a fool.
- Pickle break.
I love that pickle.
That's a very good pickle.
What is the shape of bacon?
It's like if you froze a weird sound wave.
If a bacon strip was a sound wave,
what would it sound like?
- Wa.
No, you do it.
Do wa wa gu gu.
It's wavy but not an even wavy.
- You sound like a grandfather talking to a child.
What do you think about the bacon?
Bacon (speaking in foreign language).
It's Japanese for fact.
In Germany, bacon is called speck.
S-P-E-C-K.
- That's a speck-tacular fact.
- In Netherlands, bacon is called spek.
But no C.
- That's a spek-tacular fact.
The French call it bacon or lard
and Italy considers pancetta as we do bacon.
So now we leave Los Angeles to go to the last bacon spot
right in New York City at the Gansevoort Market.
- Teleportation is real.
- For our final price point a multi course bacon menu.
Omakase.
- Omakase?
- Mama si, mama sa, omakase.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to Belly at Gansevoort Market.
My name's Johnny Wooh.
I'm the executive chef.
Today you're gonna have bacon omakase.
- And what is omakase?
- Omakase is literally I leave it up to you.
So I'll serve the best food around the board.
If you don't like it, I try to like change it radically.
And if you like the course, I just take the flow.
- And what is your background?
- My background is a serious home cook.
And this is exactly same setup.
It's almost like serving to my friends.
And, you know, after the dinner you become my friend.
- Very confident.
I hope we're friends.
- Beringer cabarnet.
- Cheers.
To the belly of the pig.
- [Johnny] So the first course of the day is bacon sushi.
- [Steven] Ooh.
I like where this is going.
And what's on top here?
- [Johnny] Wasabi.
- Cheers, Steven.
- Cheers.
- [Andrew] That's good stuff. - That's delicious.
- I love seeing food get made.
You start salivating in anticipation
and then there's no delay, right?
- It's the preview before the movies.
- [Johnny] This is bacon carpaccio.
- [Steven] I'm gonna wrap it.
- I'm just going.
- Oh.
- What is that reaction?
- We've had a lot of crunchy bacon,
but this is nice and soft and luscious.
That's so good.
Salad?
I did not sign up for a salad but I will listen to the chef.
- In Korea, mommies, grandma,
always make food with their hand.
So that's what I'm doing.
With love, you know?
We call it the hand taste.
- I'll tell you what, though.
My hands don't taste good so don't get near my hands.
- No problem.
- [Steven] Oh.
- [Andrew] Wow.
- Thank you.
Mm.
It's like a sesame vinegarette
is what I would say it tastes like.
You ready for bacon?
- Yes.
- Cheers.
Mm.
- Ooh.
It just had a little bit of the mustard on its own.
Mustard it super powerful.
- [Steven] I love how he immediately read us and then left.
- [Andrew] He's like already tinkering with something.
I think I see a taco in my future.
(laughter)
- Ma?
- It's brie.
- [Andrew] It's brie cheese.
- [Steven] Oh, yeah.
(peaceful music)
What is this?
- Grapes.
- That's a really good combination.
- The tortilla is actually dumpling skin.
- Really?
- So it's a deconstructed version of a dumpling.
My mom, she ran restaurants when I was young.
I lived on the second floor of that restaurant.
I walk up by smelling food.
I mean, it's in my blood I think.
- Thank you.
- Habanero.
(peaceful music)
- I needed this.
- Yeah.
- It was like bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, pasta.
It's a good break to have.
- Every time Adam eats I feel like
I'm watching a David Attenborough documentary.
- This is a dumpling.
- Okay.
You ready?
- I am.
- Whoa.
I just got this like wave of nostalgia.
Like eating dumplings in my mom's kitchen.
The chili is just like kind of what she had, too.
Wow.
- So if we came again, would the menu
be different? - It's a
completely different menu.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Do you remember that people come here
and remember what you served them?
- Of course.
Sometimes I eat together, drink together with customers.
- I'd love that.
Next time.
2:01.
- [Johnny] At 2:01, yes.
- Andrew.
- Yes?
- Three bacons, three price points.
- Belly, you're in the middle of this hectic market,
but somehow it's this cozy at home experience.
But my Worth It winner is Manuela.
They have a dedication to process
and it's a super cool place to eat.
- Cheeky's is my Worth It winner.
The bacon was five totally unique bacons.
Adam, what's your Worth It winner?
Can you believe that we've been
doing this for three seasons now?
- [Andrew] I've kind of developed the diet of a bear.
Force feeding every day and then
I go to sleep for six months and I do it again and that
is the Worth It season. - [Man] Oh yes.