There are no words to describe the pain and suffering these little candies unleashed in me. I'm glad the camera worked the first time - because there's no way I'm doing all that again.
The candies are the brainchild of The Pepper Boy, a company that specializes in unique superhot treats. Why anyone would really want to eat candies made with the hottest peppers in the world is actually beyond me.
They came in 3 flavors corresponding to 3 levels to heat. Strawberry anise was tamest, wintergreen tangerine was bearable, and mango was hellfire.
I'll leave it to you to check out the video and the company's website. I need to recover.
Sometimes the weirdest ideas fire us up. Often these ideas pop up in times of hunger or boredom. I think my weird ideas pop up because I'm really interested in how weird my food can get.
Case in point: I've boiled bananas in Sprite. It's a weird combo because consuming the two together will supposedly cause all kinds of stomach discomfort. The internet is full of guys and girls taking the "Sprite and Banana Challenge" and puking horribly afterward. If you're interested, you can see that video here:
But back to the case at hand. Donuts and coffee go together naturally. Like fingers on the same hand, you know? So I figured that boiling donuts in coffee would create a frothy, creamy drink that would be damn sweet. It would also pack that familiar morning caffeine punch.
Well, things don't always run as smoothly as you'd expect. It was an interesting experiment in food science. Anyone who considers themselves a food warrior would do well to check it out.
If you have any suggestions for future weird food mixes, let me know! I'm game for pretty much anything. Sometimes I'm game for everything.
Over the past few years, there has definitely been a trend of giant candy bars. They seem to roll out at Christmas and a couple other major holidays. Consumers tend to be suckers then.
Reese's makes giant peanut butter cups. York has giant peppermint patties. Snickers makes an epic 1 lb chocolate bar. Heck, Hershey's rolls out their classic candy bar in both 1 and 5 lb sizes.
And, if you're lucky, you'll find a 1 lb peanut butter and chocolate rabbit at Easter. The companies have figured out they can get away with selling them at $10 a pop, which is a bit overpriced if you compare it to buying the same volume of candy in smaller increments.
I get it - it's a novelty. Who wouldn't be impressed or disturbed at the sight of a half-pound peanut butter cup? But that's where the ploy runs its course... oversizing these candies tends to ruin the consistency of the candy and the ratio of the parts that make up the candy itself. Giant Snickers have too much nougat and the epic PB cups have too much damn peanut butter.
Don't get me wrong... I'm as happy to buy them and eat them as the next consumer. I guess it's a little food for thought as we head into the holidays. Merry Christmas and Season's Eatings!
Some things happen with no planning whatsoever. That's the case when it came to my 20 hamburger challenge, which is currently one of my most popular YouTube videos.
I was bored one night... it was summer of 2014, and I needed something to do. A schoolteacher in the summer is a bit like a car without a driver, so for some reason I thought it would be cool to film a food challenge at 11PM.
The rest, as they say, is history. I had no plans to make a speed challenge out of it and mostly ate the burgers in a manner that mocked the way competitive eaters look when they try to eat quickly. I wonder if anyone got the joke.
I didn't even bother with a joke when I did the McDonald's family pack solo. Right in the video, I tell you that I'm going to eat this thing leisurely. Not sure if that was the best approach. The last few bites were a bit agonizing. You gotta see for yourself though :)
At least I actually planned on eating the family pack. The burgers were just plain crazy.
I don't understand the craze behind the Cheetos and Takis Challenge. It was invented a couple summers back, when school districts in LA tried to ban the salted snacks. Seemed like a great way to capitalize on a current event. Make a forbidden food item into YouTube eating challenge.
But then something weird happened... the trend caught on like fire. So much so that variants of the challenge have come online. The original challenge was for a 2-person duo to eat a large bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos with a large bag of Takis Fuego. It was only about 1.5 lbs of food. The challenge came from the nature of the crunch that made eating large amounts of salted snacks difficult. The salt also makes it uncomfortable, as the dust coating the chips would line your teeth and irritate your lips and tongue. It's pain at its junk food finest.
So yeah, my mouth hurt a lot after taking on the Cheetos and Takis Challenge. It's probably not something anyone should ever attempt. I'm so dumb I tried it twice... at least the third time was a lot less painful.
Less painful maybe, but stupider considering I did it in a banana suit. Is there any smart way to pull off the banana costume?
So, have you taken on the Cheetos and Takis Challenge? Did you survive and how did you feel about your life decisions after?
Just a quick announcement, that I've started a new youtube channel dedicated purely to food reviews and restaurant reviews. My main channel, FreakEating, will carry on purely with food challenge videos at this point.
The split was awhile in coming. It followed a lot of comments by the viewers, who either wanted to see a division or who thought that review type videos didn't really belong on FreakEating. It's a good philosophical argument. It finally won me over.
For your viewing pleasure, here's the first video on my new channel. A review of the new Ghost Pepper Wings at Popeye's Chicken. Count on me to add more hot sauce to make the experience better. I'd definitely appreciate anyone who wants to see these videos to tune in and subscribe.
There will be more reviews soon. My goal is to have a video up every Wednesday evening. FreakEating will have a challenge video every Saturday night. Talk to you all later!
Happy New Year! 2014 was a memorable time. There's so much I could reflect upon, but I will focus on 3 things.
1) I didn't really live up to last year's goal of losing 10 lbs. That bothers me. Not as much as it should, but it bothers me. I suppose my new goal for 2015 should be to lose 20 lbs. We will see how well that works out.
2) With every passing year, I'm feeling more in my element as a high school teacher. This is a really good feeling. It's been seven years, so thankfully something is going right. I'd like to thank my students for helping me get better as the months and years go on. I couldn't do it without you guys and girls. Literally - they'd fire me if I didn't have students.
3) I need to enter more eating contests in 2015. That's not really a reflection, more so a statement. I didn't win a single contest in 2014. Sadly, I didn't enter many, so that makes this conclusion even more dire. Completed dozens of challenges, made some cool videos, like the ones linked in this post, but didn't win any contests. That's something to work on next year.
No new video for the new year - I'm afraid the ones I did the last two years will have to do for now. There's only so much one body can take in a week. The trip to Nashville was fun, but alas it was time to come home. More on that in the next post. Until then, have a safe new year and don't eat anything I wouldn't eat.
There's not much else to be said. The attempt to eat 5 lbs of chocolate is maniacal. But then, there's probably no better way to herald a new age in challenges than by attempting the near impossible.
Bon appetit!
Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. I've been remiss in my posts but the blog still exists. The urge to write endures and so I shall return.
As usual, the subject will probably be eating challenges - things look bright in 2013, and already I have plans to take on several large challenges all the way from Los Angeles to Orange County to San Diego. There may even be a detour to Las Vegas for a 120 oz steak and a few burgers.
This Sunday, I team with Jamie McDonald, Damon Wells, and Kevin Ross to take on an old nemesis: the huge 54"x54" pizza at Big Mama and Papa's Pizzeria in Burbank. We will be joined by two fellow Wreckless Eaters seeking revenge. Wish us well! Happy times and full stomachs await.
The announcement was already made on social media outlets, but I'll include it here too. I have a new YouTube channel entitled "Freak Eating." This channel will feature greater organization than my last one. The focus will be upon series of challenges, typically ones I do with or against other eating channels.
Material from my old channel will be ported over. Eventually, the old channel will be retired. It became incredibly cluttered with many random videos and not much direction.
Hopefully people who enjoyed my old channel and videos come over and subscribe to the new ones. There's no plan on stopping what I'm doing. I look forward to many hundreds of videos to come. Stay tuned as I eat like a freak.
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
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!
