Dear Mr. Gold:

I overheard a couple of my foodie co-workers talking about “pig candy’” the other day, but when I asked what it was, they gave me one of those weird looks and walked away. Am I missing anything? Is pig candy more like the old Farrell’s sundaes or is it a gross kind of chocolate? If you think that it’s good, where can I find some? I need to know.

Maggie, Westside Village

Dear Maggie:

If pigs had their way, pig candy would be made out of chocolate — better yet, out of chocolate destined for their consumption. But for better or worse, pig candy is the vernacular name for a snack made out of smoky, thick-cut bacon baked with lots and lots of brown sugar until it transforms itself into demonically fragrant slabs that bear more than a passing resemblance to pork-belly terrine. You want some of this stuff. Really, you do.

Pig candy has been a secret dinner-party hors d’oeuvre for years, and there has been a bit of an underground craze for the dish started in Washington, D.C. The only place I know to get it in Los Angeles is at Lou, a tiny, wonderful wine bar that just opened at the south end of Vine. Lou serves a pretty decent range of artisanal cheeses, the garlic-laced salamis of Seattle’s Armandino Batali, and slivers of Colonel Newsom’s legendary Kentucky ham, but on cool nights there may be nothing better than a plateful of pig candy and a glass of organic Côtes du Rhône. 724 N. Vine St., Hollywood, (323) 962-6369.

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