Burritos in Bakersfield

La Mina Mexican Restaurant is a small restaurant chain located in Bakersfield. They have 6 locations last I checked. Some of these locations offer a burrito eating challenge. It's a good stopping point when you're visiting family in Northern California.

They feature the Arturo Grande Burrito, priced in June 2010 at $11.99 each. It's the biggest burrito on their menu. If a diner puts down two in one hour, they get a refund. If they can eat three, they eat for free and take home a $50 prize.


They look delicious. You get your choice of meat... I've learned to go with chicken because it seems to be the lightest. Their carne asada comes in thick chunks, and if you select ground beef they really load down your burritos with huge portions.

And that's where the difficulty of the challenge arises. The burritos really don't come in set sizes. I've taken the challenge three times, and every time the burritos have looked different. I've never failed this challenge. I also never took home the $50 prize. Getting past that second serving is hell.

Each burrito, filled with beans, meat, loads of rice, lettuce and tomato, must weigh in at 4-5 lbs. The staff couldn't even offer me a range. They remind me of the King Ranch Burrito at La Casa Garcia in Anaheim, though these pack much more rice.


Every challenge has gone differently. The pictured burritos were cleared in 33 minutes. That was my most impressive finish.

The third time I took this challenge resulted in a near-failure, because the kitchen decided to really stuff the burritos with rice and douse them in sauce.

The picture may not do it justice, but this burrito was significantly plumper than the ones above. Exploding with rice. Lots of beans too. I needed 58 minutes to clear both burritos it day. Almost didn't happen! It also didn't help that they refused to bring both burritos out at once.

My suggestion? Bring a scale. Someone needs to find out how much they're shoveling down on this one. The bet totally favors the house. At the Oak St. location they told me that I was the second and third successful finisher as of June 2010.

Now do I hear any takers for the $50 note?

Day of Defeat, Part One

36" of pizza, one topping, one hour. Big Mama and Papa's Pizzeria in Hollywood, CA offers a hefty challenge to two brave souls up to the task. $200 on the line for the winners.

This was totally unplanned. Spur of the moment. Spontaneity in action. After watching the "Gang of Four" (Torres, Stonie, Gilbert, Excel) battle the Grand Sicilian 54" x 54" pizza for 75 minutes, Aaron Ybarra and I felt the urge to participate. Perhaps it stemmed from revenge for what had happened to the previous team.

[The next post will be dedicated to the effort they made against the 54" x 54" pizza. It's a longer story, I've got a few reflections to make, and I don't make to leave anything out simply because of space concerns]

In terms of surface area, a 36" pizza is equal to roughly two 25" pizzas. Weight is, of course, a whole other matter. This would not be a simple task. Then again, it's not often that you find a restaurant willing to shell out $200 on a challenge.

The pizza came out scalding. After appropriate cooling time, we dug in. Toppings were split down the middle, one-half with black olives and one-half with tomatoes. Olives appeared to be a terrible choice, because the cooks really piled them on. The sodium factor was appreciable too. I liked the parts with tomato much more.

Aaron shot out the gate, per his style. I ate in much more paced fashion, but faster than my regular rate. This was probably a mistake. Going faster usually causes me to feel full earlier, but it's an acceptable strategy if you can finish the challenge item under 20 minutes.


This thing was just too damn huge. I managed to take my half, but Aaron hit capacity several minutes early and our chances were basically written off. I knew there was no way I could take the 3-4 pieces my partner left behind in the remaining minutes. Aaron ran out of room, but I ran out of time.

The manager taunted us by throwing the prize money on the table during the challenge. He even doubled it in the last ten minutes, but I gave off my bluntest comment of the night: "You could put $20K on the table, this isn't gonna make us go any faster."

Well... back to the drawing board! It was incredible to team up with Aaron again, hopefully we get another chance to eat on the same side again one day.

All that salt!! My mouth felt burned afterward. I guess we were all a little burned that day.