The B3

The Big Badass Burrito - also known as the B3 - is one of those challenges you just can't pass up. It's only available at the NASCAR Cafe in the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

For the details... it is billed as a 2-foot, 6-lb burrito. Signs in the restaurant area describe it as "child-sized." This burrito caught my attention because of its weight. I had demolished several 5-lb burritos by the time press releases were done for the B3. Surely, my stomach could handle another pound.

There was but one way to found out. The time was October 2009. Exact dates escape me, but I didn't have work the next day, which was a fortunate turn.

The NASCAR Cafe runs a pretty good gimmick with the burrito challenge. They have a 3-table challenge area roped off from the rest of the dining space. Challengers take their spots in this little area and basically open themselves up to the attention (or ridicule) of the passersby... many of whom are a bit under the influence.

This is a challenge setup done right. Too many restaurants offer up their eating challenges as an afterthought. Not in Vegas.

The Big Badass Burrito is composed of steak, beans, rice, cheese, jalapenos, black olives, several tortillas, a few dollops of sour cream and guacamole, and liberally doused with cheese sauce and more olives. It represents a slice of Tex-Mex cuisine. At $20, it's not a bad deal.

Finish it in 90 minutes and it's free, along with a cool t-shirt and unlimited rides on the NASCAR roller coaster.

Losers get their picture taken in a pink "Weenie" t-shirt. And they get a nice bill for $20, in addition to a full stomach and the attendant embarassment of being photographed in the Weenie shirt.

Once the behemoth was set down before me, I went to work. This was before I developed any sort of technique, so I was daintily proceeding with a fork and knife.


The burrito seemed very fluidy inside, but there was just so much steak. Progress was much slower than anything you'd hope for.

Passersby gathered around once I reached the 75-80% mark. Several people predicted I would win, while one guy with a skateboard said right to my face: "Dude, you're gonna lose. That thing is huge."

One casino employee was almost giddy with excitement. "I've never seen anyone finish this burrito. I didn't believe it was possible. And now I'm gonna see it happen!"

Wow. Is that what passes for excitement? In Vegas??

What's wrong with these people?

I completed the B3 at the 70 minute mark, becoming the 17th individual to do so since the challenge was unveiled. Compare that to the roughly 900 who had already failed it at that point.


Happy to be victorious, but 70 minutes was a bit disappointing. Maybe I'll conquer it again one day.

Several people in the restaurant wanted to take photos with me. Again, that's behavior I will never understand. Why in the world would ANYONE celebrate the consumption of a child-sized meal?

One day I'll go back and tangle with the B3 again. My second attempt didn't go so well, mostly because the burrito was much heavier and denser. Far more steak packed in... but more about that in a future post.


Definitely a noteworthy challenge!

Pancake Gauntlet

Friday evening found me visiting the International House of Pancakes in San Bernardino. For several years now, the annual $4.99 all-you-can-eat pancake had rolled through without attracting too much attention. 2011 would be different. Mostly because the smaller challenges don't really.... well.... pose a challenge for me.

This is the year to push things a little bit further. No better way than to dive into pancakes. It's not a food that especially strikes my fancy. I have difficulty with grains and starches so I knew this would push my tolerance.


The delivery concept is simple enough. Your server brings you three pancakes and follows up with three more at a time until you've had enough. This is remarkably similar to the AYCE program Denny's runs with their own pancakes.

Anyone hoping to achieve hot cake greatness is going to need to speed up the process considerably if they're hoping to put up some big numbers. You can't just spend 3-4 hours waiting for small orders of buttermilk pancakes to arrive.

So I told the server I wanted 30 pancakes.

The look on her face was priceless. I wish someone had a camera handy. She told me they could bring out six at a time, but even then the process wasn't terribly rapid. I would wait long moments after finishing my first few orders. That was precious time lost! Instead of just sitting there letting your stomach settle, you need to keep eating.


Just looking at these pictures makes me feel heavy. The experience was roughly what you would expect. Easy in the beginning, but increasingly brutal as time wears on. I used maple and strawberry syrup to vary the taste but that only goes so far. The buttermilk is overpowering and the texture is eventually unappealing. :(

For a change of pace, I reported my progress via Mobile Facebook during the eating process. When I completed 27 pancakes, that was already a personal best. But I needed to push. Had to break 30... so one more order was brought out.

33 pancakes was all that I could stand. Done and done. Ironically, all the food I consumed probably did not exceed 2.5 lbs. Bread is simply a different animal. Give me 10 lbs of ice cream any day.

According to the IHOP menu, each order of 3 pancakes packs an impressive 490 calories. Did I really put down almost 5400 calories?? It didn't feel like it.

The server was amazed. But apparently the record for that IHOP location was an astounding 70 pancakes, consumed by an anonymous male.

11,000+ calories in pancakes? Flour? That's ludicrous. But still, no candidate for the 20k Club.

As far as pancakes go, I'm done. Check back with me in a year.

Taking it Home

There's something fitting about me teaching a home economics class. I'm not totally sure what it is, but it's cool how it lets me tie in work with my outside world. The class created nachos last week during a short food prep unit. Not 8 lbs' worth, but enough for a whole classroom and more.

The spirit of creation encouraged me to put together an original mega meal at home. And why not? There's usually enough food sitting around. No need to find a buffet or a far-off restaurant with a shady challenge. Plus, this stuff was already paid for. The idea was convincing enough.

So what did I come up with last Friday?


Plate 1: Wheat tortilla folded into a huge taco, stuffed with 6 oz of tuna, one roma tomato, 1000 island dressing, black olives, and garden vegetable salsa. It was impossible to eat without utensils. This reminded me of those oversized challenge burritos, but the ingredients here were a bit more original.


Plate (Bowl?) 2: Cut green beans with chunks of red & green jalapeno peppers. This was the perfect blend of fresh and hot. My mouth wouldn't forgive me for quite awhile afterward.


Plate 3: 1 lb cranberry sauce with 1/2 cup of oats and 1/2 pint of milk. Sometimes I come up with strange concoctions, mostly because of what I happen to have on hand. Cranberry sauce reminds me of jello anyway, so eating it alone has never posed an issue. Mixing it with oats reminded me of a really bland trail mix.


Hmmm.... how do I explain this one? There's really no good story here. I rarely eat pancakes at home, and the eyes grew weary of seeing this half-empty bottle in my refrigerator. It added some rich flavor to the oats, though honestly maple-flavored syrup really only goes with pancakes or waffles. Let's move on.


Plate 4: I suspected a sugar deficiency, something that could not pass by without resolution. So for my final plate, I took 10 white chocolate-coconut candy bars and drizzled honey over them. These are organic candies, so they've actually been fortified with calcium, iron, and fiber. This is not the gratuitous sugar pile it first appears to be... right.

The candy bars weigh 1.3 oz and provide me 230 calories each. That's 2300 calories at just under a total pound (the honey adds something of course). While some of us do have a weakness for sugary things, this was probably too much. The urge to sleep right after this plate was overwhelming. And so I did.

In conclusion, you can find a lot of good food lying around the house.

Just don't eat it all at one time.

Red Devil

Some eating challenges are nearly as famous as the restaurants that offer them. Just think of the 72 oz steak challenge at the Big Texan in Amarillo. That promotion is larger than life. It's also claimed many souls. You have to stop for a second and remember that it is just a steakhouse with many sane culinary offerings.

It's not clear if Red Devil Pizza (in Granada Hills) rises to the same level of notoriety. Their 28" Belly Blaster pizza challenge is certainly notorious... advertised right in the store window with a large glowing neon sign. I'd say it is a locally famous challenge. The Wall of Shame inside the restaurant is absolutely overwhelming. It is no mean feat for two people to eat a 4-topping 28" pizza in 30 minutes or less.

The day of our challenge was interesting. First of all, it very nearly didn't happen. The person on duty said she couldn't make the huge 28" pizzas if the manager wasn't present. We explained that we had traveled a huge distance... finally light appeared at the end of the tunnel, and if we waited a few hours the manager would show and we could have our challenge.

Well, that was something. We killed time by bowling... conversation.... driving around Granada Hills. Three hours doesn't move along that easily!


When we arrived at the restaurant later that afternoon, the pizzas were coming out of the oven. We did the smart thing and paid for our food up front so we wouldn't need to waste time later. Victory would provide us with refunds, t-shirts, baseball caps, and gift certificates for more future pizza. You gotta have confidence in these things. Most teams fail horrendously, so the restaurant has a solid bet going.

But this wasn't supposed to be a gamble. This was a task we were prepared for.


Yeah, it's big.

We were making the challenge attempt in two separate teams. I was teaming with Stephen Obar, one of the new eaters I met in 2010. His previous eating experience includes becoming the third person out of thousands to successfully tackle Big John's Superburger at Big John's Cafe in Redondo Beach. He also made a valiant effort to take down the 8lb OMG Burger at The Catch in Anaheim. This man eats a lot! We nearly split this pizza down the middle. I've gotta invite him to some future eating events.

Our other team included Matt Stonie and an eater significantly faster than I. They were going for the restaurant record currently held by Damon Wells and Ben Monson... which then stood at 8:15.

They came incredibly close... finishing within mere seconds of a new record. Their time was somewhere around 8:20, which I still say is damn impressive. The current record for the pizza is held by Aaron Ybarra and Stephanie Torres, below the 8 minute mark. It's astounding what some of these competitors can do.

Our team finished in 23:12, which was all we were looking for. That was a hell of a lot of pizza. But, it tasted great. I liked the balance between firmness of crust, generosity of sauce, and density of toppings. If only I lived closer to Granada Hills, this place might be more than a challenge venue.


It's hard to complain about a good day.

Looking Back to 2010

Well, 2010 is over. Happy New Year.

Last year was full of ups and downs. This blog began with an emphasis on mass consumption, and it will stay that way. My comments here will not stray into economics, roadside photography, or professional wrestling.

As far as eating went, 2010 was my most eventful year. Exact counts aren't available, but I participated in nearly 60 restaurant eating challenges and organized contests. That's a ton. We aren't even counting buffets, random restaurants, and meals-at-home-gone-out-of-control. I need to dial it back a bit in 2011.

2010 was a great experience overall. I met several new eating personalities, reconnected with people previously known to me, learned to consume more quickly, and pushed myself to put away more.

Some challenges fell. Others remain standing (damn you.... Big Mike's 36" cheesesteak and Wakasaya's Bikkuri Don).

In 2011, my basic plan is to focus on larger challenges. This will probably mean less frequent participation, but that's no big deal. Eating happens everyday. And, there's still plenty of past experiences to write about.

The next post will be about the 28" Red Devil Team Pizza Challenge in Granada Hills. There's a lot coming after that... not sure about sequencing, but it's in there somewhere.

It was an honor to be selected as a candidate for eatfeats.com's "Male Competitive Eating Challenger of 2010," but there's still a long way to go for me. My cousin once told me: "As long as you impress yourself, you don't need to worry about anyone else." I never forgot his words.

Let the consumption continue.

OMFG - I Ate Something Sweet!

It was an incredible way to end 2010... at least from a consumption standpoint.

It was over two years since I last visited a friend living in Phoenix, AZ. I thought New Year's Eve would be the perfect opportunity to sneak in a visit. He always got a kick from my massive eating habits, so it looked like the best of both worlds. Friends and food.

The drive to Phoenix irritated me slightly because I lost an hour when I crossed state lines. But no matter, since I would get that hour back when I returned home. We met up around 3:00 PM and immediately took off for Tucson east on the Interstate 10.

So after seven total hours of driving - and a load of interesting conversation - we arrived at Lindy's on Fourth in Tucson.

Their challenge is the 12-patty OMFG Burger... that's 3 lbs of post-cooked beef, 1 lb of cheese, vegetables and bun. It's about 4.5 lbs of life-shortening goodness. Eat it in 20 minutes and it's free. Man V Food fans know that Adam Richman needed more than 40 minutes to get it done.

This challenge almost didn't happen. Turns out that Lindy's closes at 5 PM on New Year's Eve, and we walked in the door at 4:30. The server told us that there wouldn't be enough time to do it.

No. I drove too far for this. I insisted boldly that I wouldn't need 20 minutes. That was a bit on the confident side for me, but the tactic worked. We got the burger.

True to my word - but tired from the drive - I delivered a 14 minute victory.


A $30 monster burger on the house... certainly tougher than the Colossus Burger in Henderson from the week before. I think the pound of cheddar cheese was the difference maker.

No one on the staff believed I stood a chance of winning, but I made a quick impression. Turns out only 3-4% challengers pull off the win. Once again I fall into elite, disgusting company.

As luck would have it, ABC-9 news reporter Jessica Chapin happened to be dining at the next table and decided to use my experience for a New Year's Eve news story. It was my first opportunity to be interviewed by the media after a food challenge.



Well... that was certainly new for me.


Next on the evening's agenda was the Sugar O.D. Challenge at Something Sweet Dessert Lounge, also in Tucson. I received my order exactly one hour after finishing the OMFG Burger.

What's in the Sugar OD anyway? 4 huge brownies, 4 huge chunks of cheesecake, 4 scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, cherries, and chocolate sauce. The staff insists it weighs 8 lbs, but I believe it's really more like 5-6 lbs. Whatever! It's huge!

And get this: it's tallied up at roughly 9,000 calories. Dangerously underweight individuals need to flock to Tucson immediately and try this thing out. It's $30 if you fail, but challenge winners get a refund and a free t-shirt.

It turns out that I depleted the brownie supply with this order. A night of close calls, indeed.


Out of some 98 attempts, I became the fourth person to take down the sugar overload. And whoa - I was 'flying' by the end. You get 45 minutes to take the challenge, but I only needed 30. My challenge time was the longest on record, but then again I went in with a heavy stomach. I'm not ashamed of my performance at all.

It was a heck of a night. Ridiculous. A fitting way for me to end 2010.

My next post will reflect on what I've done in the last year, and my hopes for 2011.

Happy New Year!