Like Adam Richman on Man vs. Food has anybody here ever attempted a restaurant’s challenge to eat some gargantuan amount of food or a dish spiced to unhealthy levels? Or do you know someone who has?
I did a 40 pancake contest once. 40 medium sized pancakes in an hour. I did it in 32 minutes. It was surprisingly easy and the people were quite impressed. I couldn’t do it anymore, although. They wanted me to keep going to see how many I could do, but my mom wouldn’t let me (I was only 18 at the time).
My older brother ate the 72 oz steak at Big Tex in Amarillo, TX in less than an hour (with all the fixins, which is required to get the steak free).
No, but I’d like to try.
Ate at an Indian restaurant in San Jose where they put your picture on the wall if you eat a particularly hot/spicy dish. Everyone in the group made it through. It was definitely hot - but I’ve had hotter!
Hot = Hey, that’s spicy, wow, I’m sweating now, where’s the sweet lassi?
Hotter = My mouth is completely numb (and my sphincter will be on fire tomorrow!)
Then there was the time I couldn’t hear my friends asking me if I was okay after eating a grilled pepper in El Pollo Loco. No friggin’ clue what happened there but it was by far the spiciest thing I’ve ever tried.
You didn’t hallucinate and have a spirit quest with a space coyote that sounded suspiciously like Johnny Cash, did you?
I’ve never had a Bolivian Insanity Pepper, but I’d try one if offered.
The trick is coating your tongue with candle wax.
Is THAT what causes that?!?
I was really really tempted to do this one when I passed through as well, but after eating one of their heartier normal meals instead, I knew I was out of my league (plus, you have to eat on an elevated table in the middle of the place, so you have be the center of attention, too)
at cheeburger cheeburger, the first pounder gets your picture on the wall, and the second makes the bill complimentary.
did both, but that was when i was 16 and just done with football practice. and i was so full, i could barely smile for the polaroid.
I’ve never tried one, but I have been to the Crown Candy Kitchen in St. Louis where Adam tried the 5 milkshake challenge. I went there a few years ago and got one malt and had to take it to go and it still took me over an hour to finish just one and I felt kinda sick. One malt/shake is a full glass plus that metal cup pretty much full too. I don’t know how anyone can drink five, especially in I think the hour the challenge gives you. Delicious though!
Me and my cousin did some “World Hottest Wings” crap at Jake Melnick’s in Chicago a year or so ago. They had us sign a waiver and somesuch, and took our pictures afterwards, as well as giving us a plastic fireman’s helmet as a souvenir. We both passed it without any sort of problem. Granted, we’re both used to spice and can handle it, but this was not, by any stretch of the imagation, the “world’s hottest wings.” Youtube video here.
I put down Alexander’s 48oz “The Beefeater” steak with the required Texas toast and salad bar trip for dinner on junior prom. Got a Polaroid on the wall and a t-shirt, but it wasn’t terribly difficult, especial since anyone who’s ever cut weight for wrestling knows that your appetite is roughly doubled for the rest of your life.
Halfway through, I turned to my date and said through a mouthful of steak, “I hope you don’t think I’m a pig!” She just thought of me as a friend though, and it was staying that way regardless, so bon appetit!
I feel sorry for the Man vs Food host when he takes on some of those burgers. They often look so dry and unseasoned. So many are burgers made for size, taste and texture be damned.
His recent bout with the habenero extract “Shut up Juice” BBQ sandwich in Little Rock looked like one of the Jackass crew getting maced in the mouth.
I put down 12 blazin’ wings at the local Buffalo Wild Wings in one minute and fourteen seconds, which may or may not have set the local record.
It got me free wings and a free T-shirt… but they only had shirts in Medium. Why would they even stock those?
A local famous BBQ place, Big Daddy’s BBQ, had a standing challenge to eat thier hottest sauced sandwich (at the time the sauce was aptly named “Emergency Room” then since had three even hotter). The stakes were a fully catered dinner for 20(?) I think vs. an $100+ donation to the Food Bank of Iowa.
The food bank got $100 richer that day and I couldn’t feel my lips for a week. 
The food Bank made a fair amount off of that challange.
The resturant was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place in a poorer part of town, but during the lunch rush was packed with every mover and shaker in the state. Best BBQ ever.
- Pizza. I lost.
A little short-lived pizza joint had one in back in 1982. If you could eat a 12-inch pizza in an hour, you got it free. No t-shirt or name on the wall, just the satisfaction that you got it free.
Having singlehandedly downed a few 16-inchers in my life, I had no doubt that I could handle 12 inches. No problem at all. I went there with my roommate, both of us confidante that we were going to walk away with a free meal.
So, we’re seated, and we order. My roommate (I’ll call him Hyman), decided to go conservative and just ordered a plain cheese pizza. I was feeling rather cocky about being able to handle a paltry 12-incher, so I ordered mine with all available toppings–except anchovies. I said I wanted a double order of anchovies!
So, we’re waiting, and we notice a customer being served this really weird looking. . . cake? Cake? Nope. Pizza. A foot across, and probably 4-5 inches high. We looked at the pizza, then at each other, both wondering, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
Well, our pizza arrives, and we go for it. An hour later, it’s obvious we’re not going to finish. I had one piece left–but that one piece would have made meal in itself any other time. Hyman hadn’t done so well, only about half.
There was just no more room, and not just that, but the inside of my mouth felt like it was full of sores from. . . salt? acid? I don’t know. But it was sore. Even if I could have made room in the belly, I would have had a hard time just chewing. So we spend another hour or so in the restaurant drinking to, at least in my case, because I thought it would somehow ease the pain of the irritation inside my mouth. (Although that might have actually done more to irriate it, who knows?)
I’ve tried the Big Ass Burger Challenge in Madison WI when I was about 19. It’s 2lbs of hamburger, with the biggest bun I’ve ever seen, a large order of fries and a large soft drink, no ice. You have an hour to finish it.
I got through the fries, drink and half the burger. I couldn’t finish the second half, unfortunately. So I took it home and that night split it up at 2AM between four people so we could have a snack.
A local restaurant, Legume Bistro has an offal tasting menu coming up. We are going, looking at it as a chance to try seldom experienced foods.