Lux, Veritas, Lardum
Well-intentioned people may have told you that the theme for Burningman this year was "Psyche." They were misinformed. The 2005 theme was bacon. Crisp, thick cut, slightly chewy bacon, with just a bit of maple flavor.
The Official Newspaper, the Black Rock Gazette, was abruptly decomissioned this year, but the staff, in true burner spirit, rapidly raised funds, renamed their journal to the Black Rock Beacon, and put out a week of issues without official aid. Of particular interest was their new slogan--Lux, Veritas, Lardum, or, roughly translated, Light, Truth, Bacon.
This was my first year camping with a big, well organized theme camp (the mighty Automatic Subconscious), and I gotta say, the kitchen was a wonder. Dinner was the only communal meal (cooking for fifty was an educational and adrenaline-y experience), but the noshing was damn fine for the rest of the day too, with the aforementioned bacon not the end of the story by any means.
There were several other exciting cullinary adventures that week. Most notably, our Kitchen Goddess, Rachel, brought a jar of homemade preserved lemons for the chicken tagine she was going to make. Supplies were limited, but she let me try one the day before she was going to use them, and it was fantastic. Tart, bracingly salty, tender, and intensely aromatic. I immediately realized that they would make the world's best Martinis.
I arrived home intoxicated with the prospect of revolutionizing the Martini world, picked up a bunch of organic lemons at Harvest, and made myself two jars full. A month later, I have refined the formula a little, and won rave reveiews from a small circle of beta testers. The good news is that Moroccos (as I have dubbed them) are at least as good as I hoped. The bad news is that the idea is not so original as I had hoped. However, for posterity, I have compiled a few words on how to make your own Morocco