Moving to Brooklyn

Last weekend's trip to Oregon was an amazing success. I met up with Aaron Wakamatsu, completed five food challenges, and appeared in the Statesman Journal for my big win against a 12 lb pizza.

Aaron is a great friend, an awesome supporter of competitive eating, and an emerging champion of all things spicy. He helped establish two of the eating challenges I dominated, and the groundwork has been set for new challenges in the coming months.

Video material from the trip is still being edited. I'll post it as soon as time permits, along with blog coverage of my individual challenges with photos. There will also be reports sent to www.bestfoodchallenges.com



Image courtesy http://crifdogclassic.com/ 

But as time rolls on, new opportunities emerge. My name is listed as a candidate for the new Crif Dog Classic Hot Dog Eating Contest slated for this July 4th in Brooklyn, New York. Though I didn't ask for it, I recognize that it's an incredible opportunity and I'm campaigning hard for votes.

I need all the help I can get, as I'm up against qualified competition. Just go to their website and vote for the "Freak8r" to send me to Brooklyn!

Oregon Mania

This weekend, I return to the state of Oregon. Hadn't been there since the Summer of 2009. Back then, I ventured North to visit a relative. Eating big was hardly on the agenda, and the one challenge I attempted defeated me.

2012 is a bit different. On the heels of Randy Santel's dominant visit to Washington state, I will make my way back to Oregon. There are two items on the agenda. Meet Aaron Wakamatsu, fellow foodie and all-around good friend, and to eat like a freak.

My roadmap is pretty much set. I'll be tackling several major challenges near Salem and Portland.

1) China Blue Lucky Seven Chicken Dinner (7 lbs)
2) Mad Greek Deli 24" sandwich w/fries (6 lbs)
3) Odd Moe's Pizza Triple Play Challenge (4-5 lbs)
4) The Legend 5 lb Poutine Challenge
5) Church St. Pizza 28" Pizza Challenge (10+ lbs)
6) Voodoo Doughnuts' Texass Doughnut (~ 1 lb)

There may be a heat challenge or two thrown in alongside that. What follows should be interesting blog and YouTube material. See you soon.

Give Me Some Tongue

I like taco shops that offer "odd" cuts of meat. And when I say odd, I mean that from the perspective of the commercialized diet of cheeseburger and pizza. Anyone who's followed my meals knows I love raw fish. The cuts of tendon and tripe you find in pho tickles my fancy equally well.

So, what meat did I get? Tongue and head (for linguistic sensitivity the sign advertised them as lengua and cabeza). They're really tender. Only 99 cents each. I'd do better to go on Tuesdays, when they have a 75 cent taco deal.

My mission to locate the best eating places in the High Desert continues. Los Jalapenos #2 certainly does a good job in Victorville (and just 100 feet from a Taco Bell), but honestly, they're not a total High Desert experience. Their first location is in Rancho Cucamonga. The search continues.

A Challenging Day

December 3, 2011 was a hectic day. I don't know if it'll quite live in infamy, but it certainly pushed the limits. There's a lot of good food in the Los Angeles area, but once the clock struck midnight there was about 16 lbs less.

Started things off at D' Lite Pho Lee in Rowland Heights. For lunch, I tackled their XXXL Pho Challenge. You are given one hour to finish 2 lbs of meat and 2 lbs of noodles. There were no previous winners at the time. Decided there was no real reason to rush - this was the standard pho challenge you see at so many restaurants. It was delicious. And in 25 minutes it was gone. They gave me this really sweet plum soda afterward.

So, really, how big was the meal? The server explained to me that the quoted weights (2 lbs meat, 2 lbs noodles) refer to post-cooking tallies. It's inevitable that the noodles will soak up some of the broth, you also end up slurping up some of the broth, and there's the usual water intake that goes with mass consumption. I can safely say this was over 5 lbs of food. Went in starving, but felt satisfied afterward.

The pho was done by 2 PM. After visiting family in the Glendora area, I met up with two of my competitive eating buddies in Little Tokyo. The Spicialist and Kevin Ross have eaten many massive meals alongside me. The Spicalist wanted to test his ability to handle two challenges back-to-back, mostly as capacity training for an upcoming bout with the 8+ OMG Burger offered by The Catch in Anaheim.

We met up at Wakasaya around 9 PM. It's located in one of those shopping centers you find in Little Tokyo. Their challenge is the 5+ lb Bikkuri Don, basically a large bowl of raw fish and rice with a huge miso soup on the side. You get 15 minutes to thrash the food, or you're paying $50 to the kitchen. Few people have beat this one. Kevin once held the house record here (about 7 minutes), and since he already completed the challenge opted to wait for our next stop.

The Spicialist and I ate deliberately. We dominated those huge donburi bowls. Our finish times were a few seconds apart (he nosed me out), right at the 10 minute line. The server was impressed, remarking that we made it look easy. I didn't mention the pho from earlier.

Amazingly, I didn't really feel anything after this challenge. Not full. Not stuffed. Just "in the zone." Kevin was certainly hungrier than the rest of us, so we rushed off to our final destination.

We arrived at Kosher Pizza World in downtown LA around 10 PM. Unfortunately, my camera battery was very low so I couldn't take many pictures or video. Their challenge is the 7 lb "Ultimate Destroyer Burrito."  You get 30 minutes to try and slay this soy-filled vegetarian beast. It was undefeated at the time.



Kevin went first. Guided by the magical powers of his orange hat, he destroyed the burrito in a record 7 minutes. The audience of restaurant goers were absolutely on their feet for this feat. You can hear me in the video calling out (annoying) color commentary. My hat's off to Kevin for this huge win!

Spicialist ate about 75% of the burrito in 15 minutes

Then, when the dust had settled, The Spicialist and I received our 7 lb challenge burritos. Kevin's record setting performance would be a tough act to follow. I blazed right out the gate, finishing half of my burrito in about 5 minutes.

Things became very difficult at that point. My stomach was nearly capped off. The owner of the restaurant recognized me from my Man v Food Nation appearance and suggested to me that I had a reputation to maintain. I would be lucky to maintain consciousness!

Every bite was now a battle. Water became my best friend, soaking and pushing down every last morsel of food. I was full, but it was still delicious. At about 21 minutes, I finally cleared my huge dish.

Relief, sweet relief sounded in my head. This was almost unbelievable. It was my first time attempting three "mass" eating challenges in one day (8 hour span) with success. It sure as hell wasn't easy. There were moments during the burrito were I really believed I would lose it. Willpower must count for a lot.

Hadn't blogged in awhile, so I figured putting up a quality story would make up for it. Spending too much time editing videos lately!

Eating a Dinosaur

The Taco Grande in Victorville is an unsuspecting hole-in-the-wall. I say that because it occupies a rather large building. Once inside, the charms of all the generic one-location restaurants comes flooding to you.

So what struck my fancy? They offer a Taco Tuesday promo, selling small street tacos for 79 cents each. Come in after 3PM and you can get a burrito and drink for $6.50

Mass consumers will be happy to know that there is a chips and salsa bar, all free of charge. You are allowed to go back as many times as you want. The chips taste really fresh too.

My meal of choice for the evening was the asada fries, priced at $6. They were excellent. The portion felt a bit on the small side, especially at that price point, but the quality was commendable. It's too bad I didn't come across an "asada fries eating challenge" because it's just that good.

So what else did I notice? A $10 burrito named "The Dinosaur." It weighs about 3 lbs, or so I was told. You can bet I'll be back for that.

In my case, The Dinosaur will only serve one.

Sushi For Dessert

Haven't blogged at all this month, so here we go. Asian Palace Buffet in La Mirada, CA offers AYCE weekend dinner for $12.99 plus tax and tip.

The sushi was above average for the price range. I also appreciated the availability of crab items.

I'm possibly the only person who could mix sushi with a dessert plate. Well worth the price and I'd go back if I was in the area.