Raising the Bar

The bar was set at 41 pancakes last night. Johnnie Excel and I have started this game of one-upsmanship recently, and it shows no signs of vanishing into the cold night.

It started a long time ago, really. We were curious as to who would win a capacity battle between the two of us. Unfortunately, differences in our skill sets made most comparisons impossible. Excel does well in speed contests, whereas I achieve my best in longer competitions.

We discussed meeting at a buffet. Nothing really came of that (yet). We clashed recently at Chick Fil A's nugget eating contest, but that really wasn't a fair test. Chicken nuggets aren't Johnnie's favorite food and the salt content deterred most participants from going for broke.

But pancakes are a whole other matter. We both love them. Luckily, Denny's runs a $4 promotion for all-you-can-eat pancakes. Finally, there's a potential proving ground for us.

Last year, I was featured in the local Yucca Valley newspaper for eating 33 pancakes at Denny's in 90 minutes. Now, Johnnie has raised the bar to 41 hotcakes in two hours. Can I push it to 45?

And yes, those are pictures of hot dogs up above. I will leave the symbolic meaning up to you.

Desperado Gang

That's a lot of food. This whole meal is called the Desperado Gang, and you'll find it in Marina Del Rey in a small, friendly eatery called Outlaws Bar & Grill.

Let's see what we have: 2 lbs of hamburger, a thick layer of chili, vegetables, custom bun, guacamole, and a plate of fries. Looking back, it doesn't seem like much, but this was also one of my earliest challenges. Probably in the neighborhood of 4.5-5 lbs, which is on the lower extreme of the eating challenges I take on these days. You have one hour to devour the mess for a free t-shirt and your picture on the wall of fame.

Greg "The Floss" Moss completed this challenge at one point, but I believe his venture came shortly after mine. It had been awhile since I had done anything like this, so naturally I wondered if I would come up short. The hostess had seated me across from the kitchen, and the taunts of the cook didn't help much: "Good luck buddy, there's no way in hell you can finish all that."

Well, I proved him wrong. Eventually. 45 minutes later. This was before I learned the art of pressure, so it was a good leisurely eat. It was actually a really flavorful meal, given all the different tastes, but I could have done without all that bread. The meat was a little crispy on the edges, but it's tough to complain when you get your beef in 32 oz slabs. Eat big and suffer for it.

As I left, the server told me about a really tall, bald guy who tried to eat two of these meals as his friends cheered him on.

She didn't have any names handy. I wonder who that could have been.