There is a strange variation on the BLT, good in winter, that I love too. Microwaved (and this is one of the few times I used the appliance) salami, with cream cheese and fresh spinach on almost burned toast. Pumpernickel is best, but wheat breads work too.

But, strangely, pumpernickel works well too.

I had a good BLT at some dump near Robinson Towne Center… I used to work out that way, and on a certain strech of road I would consistantly smell bacon. I eventually tracked down the source, and that’s how I found The Del Kid? (now out of business.) Their recipe was simple… tons and tons of bacon.

The bread should be something fairly neutral, but crunchy after toasting. No heavy wet multigrains. Breadwords Tuscan or rustic sourdough.

Thin sliced bacon. More crunchable. Preferable something that has not been cured to death.

Salt and fresh ground multi-pepper (black, green, and pink [which really is not pepper, and was temporarily banned]) on the tomato.

I also prefer eating it open faced, which is really just an excuse for twice as much tomoato and bacon for the same amount of bread.

Of course, there is also Cobb Salad, a BLT in a bowl to which I add smoked chicken, and hard boiled eggs to.

As an aside, I generally order a BLT when I’m at a new restaurant whose menu I don’t entirely know. It’s simple to make, and any restaurant which can screw up a BLT has no business being in the restaurant business. Very few screw it up, but that leaves a lot of room for improvement.

From this habit I’ve found two BLT’s worth note. The first was Old Glory, in Washington DC, whose method of making a BLT is to wave some bread, lettuce, and tomato at a giant pile of bacon until the bacon understands it must behave. This is nothing like the traditional BLT, but usually quite good.

The second is the deli down the street from the Holiday Inn on Greenfield Rd., in Lancaster, PA. This BLT was a transcendent experience, the best BLT I’ve had anywhere. I couldn’t tell you what, if anything, was different from the “standard” BLT recipe, but it was apparently created by a crack team of ninjas. I went back a couple days later and had another one, and that one was just as good.