25 Pancakes!

Today's post is dedicated to XeRoFuN, a close friend much in my thoughts as of late. Get well soon!

Sometimes, work scheduling doesn't come off as smoothly as it should. You're left stranded in some city, far away from home... but it isn't worth going home and coming back for the actual shift several hours later. You gotta hang around.

What do you do? How can you waste four hours of your life without looking back?

You're probably going to find several things to do, because four hours is a lot. I went to the gym, drank a protein shake, and rested in my car as I waited patiently for my cell phone to recharge.

Still two hours to go. Had to bite the bullet. Finally, I decided to take up what I was discussing with a friend and attempt to go the distance with all-you-can-eat (AYCE) pancakes at Denny's.

It's not a bad deal at $4 - especially if you can eat more than four, since Denny's will gladly sell you two pancakes for $2. A little basic math helps sometimes.

They start you out with three cakes, then they're supposed to bring out two at a time until you're satiated with buttermilk goodness. The picture above is of the first round. They don't look particularly appealing, all disheveled with the butter running down, but they tasted the way good pancakes should: rich, fluffy, and not burned.


The next round of two looked significantly nicer... but I realized this was no way to test myself. If I was going to eat a lot of them, I'd need them to come out faster. So, taking advantage of the dead hour in the restaurant (it was 3:14 PM on a Monday and I was the only one ordering food), I asked the server if a steady stream of pancakes could come from the kitchen.


And how! Plates of four and two, with no trouble at all. I appreciated the prompt, efficient service in this Denny's location. When I finished this round, the server asked if I wanted more. The server surprised me by asking for a number to bring out. No doubt in her mind now that this food would be eaten!

Going for broke, I asked for.... 12. She didn't bat an eye either. Walked over to the kitchen and placed the order. Which is where the most comical part of this story comes in. I was seated next to the kitchen, within the earshot of some very bored short-order cooks (keeping in mind I was the only person ordering anything).

When the cook read the order for the dozen flapjacks, he said aloud: "This order must be to go."

"Oh, no," the server replied. "We got a customer sittin' in here eatin',"

I had to resist the urge to burst out laughing at what I heard next from the kitchen.

"What is this, an eating contest or something!?"


Ask, and ye shall receive! 12 pancakes at one time! A little burned, but still good enough to eat. Using liberal amounts of strawberry jam, I created what can best be described as really doughy strawberry shortcake.

I called it a day with a final round of two. Honestly, the taste of flour and buttermilk was starting to become repulsive. If this was a contest or actual challenge I would have pushed to the limit - but I had work later on, and this was mostly just to kill time.

Receiving 25 pancakes in about a 40 minute span was remarkable too. Couldn't have done that during the breakfast rush!

(Sharp eyes will notice that the last photo is a repeat. My cell phone battery died so I couldn't snap that last picture)

Judging from nutritional info published online, this AYCE run provided me with roughly 3,500 calories and 500-600g of carbs. Pancakes aren't especially known for their protein content, but I managed to take in over 80g this way.

It sure felt like a good time to go for a run.
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Future note: the next post will include links to video footage of a powerhouse team destroying a 30" pizza in 6 minutes. Though I was not directly involved, it was incredibly impressive and an honor to be on hand with a camera.

Going Mad

Near Sacramento, there's a small town called Lodi.... right off the 5 Freeway on State Highway 12. It's a little bit away from the major metropolitan centers, involves driving through some farmland, and seems isolated, but once you get into the urban areas it's really a city like any other.

One colleague liked to tell me that if you've seen one city, you've seen them all. It doesn't matter where in the world (or country) you are. You find shopping centers, religious institutions, municipal buildings, eating holes, sewage systems, government offices. Names and spatial configurations might vary. But... a city is a city. A place where people gather to live and work, produce and consume. If only he told me that before I hit the road.

Lodi has those rows of businesses, much the same way you would find them in Hanford, Carson, or San Luis Obispo. I was there to visit a burger restaurant I had read about on EatFeats. Called Andre's Cafe and Catering, this place boasted a huge hamburger meal that would be completely free to any diner who could consume it in 30 minutes.

This behemoth of a cheeseburger is called the Madd Dogg Burger.... I guess you gotta be a little mad to order it, or mad to believe you're actually going to get it for free. It's 2 lbs of beef stacked high with double helpings of all the usual hamburger condiments.... tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, onions, pickles, and mayonnaise. You are also required to finish the side order of french fries.

The interesting element of the challenge is the fact that you can order any variation of french fries they serve - the garlic parmesan certainly sounded tasty, but I know that it's never a good idea to eat more on a challenge than you have to! Less is more, in this case. It's just a very basic strategy when it comes to restaurant eating challenges. I'm sure they wouldn't have minded if I asked for the chili fries, because I would have been the damn fool trying to cram down an extra pound of food.

As a side note, I vastly prefer hamburger challenges that feature multiple meat patties as opposed to one huge slab of beef. The patties are cooked separately, come out juicier and tastier, are easier to chew and swallow, and require far less liquid to get through. Giant slabs of beef, by contrast, tend to be baked until the point of dry blandness. They're hell to get down. They also don't really remind me of true hamburgers.

This combo costs $12.99, but it's free if you can do it in 30 minutes. I didn't take any snapshots during the challenge, because I was so taxed by the task at hand. I had never done a burger challenge before, and I really didn't know how to go about it. I began by eating the patties separately with ketchup, mixing in the veggies as I went along. The bun was no trouble at all, but I hated the cup of mayo that came with this burger. Ugh.

I finished the last french fry exactly at the 30 minute mark. I didn't think I was really going to make it! I was certainly glad I did, though. No point in eating such a ridiculous amount of food on a dare, and then having to pay $14 for a handful of french fries. I would have been just as satisfied with a smaller serving of food, and a smaller bill. 

It's all in the thrill of competition, and I climbed the mountain yet again.

I agree with this statement! Life's also too short to eat bad food. Andre's Cafe puts out some excellent American-style grub... I'll be sure to sample those parmesan fries the next time I'm in Lodi.

Let's just say that won't be for awhile....