Pizza Hut $6 Buffet

This offer's been available for years, but until last week it escaped me. A recent drive to Yucca Valley convinced me to change my mind, especially since it was over 100 degrees outside and my car's A/C fan stopped working. I needed to stay indoors awhile. And come on, it's Pizza Hut!

The basic propostion is simple. $6 covers unlimited access to all the pizza, salad, pasta, dessert (pudding and pizza) you could want. A drink is included so it's a great deal. It's a better bargain than KFC's $10 buffet in Banning though there you have more options overall and way more protein.

As far as pizza quality goes, my gut feeling is the buffet stuff is only slightly less tasty than the usual made to order pies. I detected two types of crust: thin and dusted with oil, and a thicker buttery crust. Both were enjoyable though the thinner crust would allow you to eat a lot more in one sitting.

They have 8 pizzas sitting in the station at one time. They alternate between 6 different types of pizza, it felt like, depending on customer request and actual demand. The only downside to this type of buffet are the slow moments when people aren't eating much and the food on the tray is getting old and cold. In terms of taste, I'd compare the Pizza Hut lunch buffet to Cici's Pizza. I prefer Cici's because they have more pies available at one time, more dessert pizzas, and their offer for all-you-can eat stands all day.

20 slices of pizza for $6 is an unbeatable deal. That seems to equate about two medium pizzas, and that more than sufficed for my food needs for the whole rest of the day. It also provided great fodder for my blog, which has gone lonely lately. It's nice to have something new to write about.

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.

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.

Team Pizza Preview

Haven't written anything in awhile. Fixing that now. I've completed a few big challenges recently. Last week, I raised the Denny's pancake gauntlet set by Johnnie Excel from 41 to 43 cakes. Two nights ago, I joined "Furious" Pete at the Brand Steakhouse in Las Vegas and we ate 120 oz steaks. I became the first person to complete the 120 oz steak challenge for a second time. Yesterday, I joined "Juan More Bite" Rodriguez and we became the first and second guys to complete the 4-foot burrito challenge at Coconut's Beach Bar and Grill in Vegas. Juan holds the record at 16 minutes, and I trailed behind at 24.

All that aside, I'm excited for the future. I'm excited for pizza. This Thursday, a team of High Desert eaters is coming back together for another pizza challenge. John Rivera of Joshua Tree will be coming out to Rancho Mirage to join me for a massive 20" BBQ Cheeseburger Pizza. The challenge is hosted by Waters Cafe inside a casino.

What does it weigh? Who knows what it weighs. I've seen different notes, going anywhere from 6 lbs to over 10 lbs. We won't let those questions get us down. Our goal is to be the first team to defeat this challenge under the 30 minute limit.

It's gonna be cheesy, it's gonna be greasy, but most of all it's gonna be good.

72 oz Side of Beef

The Iron Hog Saloon, a few miles away from Victorville, offers a 72 oz steak challenge modeled with near exactitude off the Big Texan in Amarillo, Texas.

Getting to the Iron Hog is a bit of a journey. After reaching Victorville, you must drive through several miles of dusty desert road. At some point you wonder if you're going in the right direction. GPS says that you are, but in the desolation you begin to doubt that tinny voice telling you to drive ahead.

It's a biker bar, yes, but they take their challenge very seriously. Here is the competition table. Once time begins, you get one hour to plow through the steak and various sides or you owe them $100. This price tag is a bit steep. I'd say it's the biggest deterrent to any brave soul taking the challenge. On top of the table is an official rundown of the rules and some local trivia.

Now it's time for some backstory. Prior to my visit, I had never done a steak challenge. The idea of trying to eat 4 1/2 lbs of meat seemed intimidating. When I filmed with Adam Richman on the set of Man v Food Nation a week prior to taking this challenge, Richman made sure to sell the point that I'd never done a steak challenge. But, facing a 3 lb tri tip sandwich (which I did for the show) is a bit different from facing a 4.5 lb steak with assorted sides.

Yeah, it's that big. Easily the size of 8 or 9 ordinary steaks that a man or woman would eat for dinner. Before my visit, there was only one challenge winner. Her name is Stephanie Wu, an enthusiastic eating challenger who completed several challenges and operated a sophisticated website documenting challenges before mysteriously disappearing. I hope she's ok, wherever she ended up. Her record time was 59 minutes.

The cook brought out the platter, let me choose my knives, and we were off. I chose to focus on the meat first. In about 8 minutes the steak was over half finished, so I switched over to the potato and tomato slices. Though I didn't have to, I also finished the optional lettuce and cantaloupe slices. They were good for varying up the flavor.



My finish under 29 minutes caused a small uproar in the restaurant. It cut the record time in less than half, so I understand the shock, but there's many eaters who could have finished this challenge in under 15 minutes. Knowing how to tackle a huge steak now, I'm certain I could improve on my own time. It made me nervous when customers would crowd in to watch, but it's not everyday that someone rolls in and manhandles the biggest meal on the menu.

And without a doubt, this is a challenge that I would love to do a second time. It tasted phenomenal, the cut of meat wasn't too fatty, and there are several sides on the menu so there's plenty to choose from. Given the price tag there's no way they'd let me have another one on the house.

They even have a guest book! There's only been two challenge restaurants, in my experience, that offered that nice touch. The other, famous for pancakes and weary travelers, will be the focus of an upcoming post.

Epic Fail Time

20,000 calories may be possible in one meal, but you aren't going to get there by eating 8 lbs of trail mix. I learned that the "hard" way last Friday. Everything in the bag required laborious chewing. Nothing softened, even doused in pumpkin ice cream.

The concept was still a success. It was arranged as a school-community event in Yucca Valley, my students were invited to watch and complete observational assignments, and everyone else who came to watch loved it. The Hi Desert Star actually mentioned the event in last Saturday's paper. Channel 2 News in nearby Palm Springs requested event photographs and a write-up.

One of these days, I'll find an effective way to concoct an edible 20k calorie meal. Trail mix seemed smart: it's calorie dense, so you get high calorie counts without adding on a ton of weight. Maybe I'll take a cue from Johnnie Excel and load up on mayonnaise next time out.

I stopped after eating for 80 minutes... wasn't so full as much as I was tired and disgusted. Even turning the leftover portions into thick, blended smoothies didn't help. You'd be surprised, but they tasted pretty good.

In an epic encounter, food won. There's a large amount of video footage from this stunt, and it will be making its way onto YouTube shortly.

Something Sweet

Richie's Diner is a chain with a few locations in Southern California. I know about them because I've frequented the location in Victorville on Palmdale Road.

Their food is similar to what you find at Denny's. The irony is this location of Richie's shares a parking lot with a Denny's. Richie's Diner has specials for various days of the week. One special that is carried all week long is their highly advertised "2 banana splits for $4."

It's a sweet deal for a sweet tooth. And I'll bet you can't eat just one.

Feeling Dirty

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers recently opened a new location in Victorville. It's been busy every time I've passed by, which is more than you can say for several eateries in the High Desert.

Their menu is expansive. The offerings remind me of Foster's Freeze or Wienerschnitzel-Tastee Freeze. What stood out for me was their selection of frozen dessert treats.

How can you go wrong with something called "Dirt N' Worms"?

That's frozen custard with gummy worms and Oreo pieces, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Sweetness. They should have a contest, I say. Who can eat five of these the fastest?

Sushi in the High Desert

  

Daikoku Japanese Steak House in Victorville offers an incredible promotion for all-you-can-eat sushi and hand rolls. Some people may object to eating raw fish so far from a water source... but you'd be missing out on a bargain. $12 for lunch, $15 for dinner. I ate 12 rolls and survived. The hardest part was exercising right afterward.

 Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sample everything on the menu. Yet.

Facing Sancho's Challenge

Up in the high desert city of Hesperia, a small new restaurant named "Sancho's Tacos" has opened up. They haven't been around long, but I like their chances. The windows outside are extremely colorful, and the inside looks cozy. I'd say their menu offerings are authentic. They have lengua on the menu (tongue, for those of you who don't hable espanol), which is a definite plus in my book. If I have a hand in crafting my last meal on Earth, lengua will be in it.

But enough about lengua for now, we're supposed to be discussing Sancho! Sancho's offers a restaurant eating challenge - billed on the menu as a 4-lb burrito with the meat of your choice - that must be completed in 30 minutes. If you finish, the meal is on the house, your mugshot goes up on the Wall of Fame, and you get a nifty T-shirt advertising the nice little eatery on the long dusty road. Fail and you'll shell out about $20.

Unfortunately, your meat choices are limited to ground beef, steak, chicken, or carnitas. No lengua on this one. Oh well.... dream deferred, right? I went with chicken because past experiences have told me it is pretty easy to eat quickly. The cool thing is the burrito can be customized - if you don't like beans, you can swap it out for larger portions of cheese, rice, and the other stuff. I get it as is, because I like all the ingredients and I want to keep the challenge legit.

I'm suspicious as the burrito comes out. This looks a bit much for 4 pounds! Unless it's mostly hollow on the inside.... the server tells me that it's really just over 5 lbs. Is this a case of deceptive advertising? I'll let you be the judge. I came here to eat, and I'm going to let my eating speak for itself.

The inside of the burrito was stuffed with chicken, pinto beans, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, red rice, guacamole, cilantro and this bold enchilada sauce. I found the tortillas to be rather dry. I didn't enjoy the enchilada sauce much, as it tasted incredibly tangy. Not a bad meal at all. I was aiming for the 15-20 minute mark, but I got it done in 27 minutes. I was a bit disappointed. This was my first burrito in awhile, so perhaps I fell out of practice.


I became the second person (male) to complete this challenge in the time limit, and all I got was a full stomach and a T-shirt! I'm definitely going back to this place. The staff was friendly and warm, with better food to boot. Anyone who has a hankering for a burrito challenge needs to try this place out.

And in due time, my next post will FINALLY materialize: The Adventures of Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster!