Super Bowl of Pho

A small restaurant in Alhambra offers a pho eating challenge. Of course, you must know about it going in. There's no mention of it anywhere inside the place. It's not on the menu. It's not the wall. I bet regular customers don't even have a damn clue about it. Ask, and ye shall receive. I knew about it because of a listing on eatfeats.

It's not your standard pho challenge, but it's fair. You have one hour to entirely consume three large bowls of piping hot Vietnamese soup.. that's beef, noodles, broth, and all. It's about $25 if you fail. I used ice water to cool it down, but in the end the toughest part is drinking all the salty broth. At least I wasn't dehydrated afterward. No cameras followed me, but I think a few people would get a kick out of seeing me drink some of the broth through a straw.

When I finished, the server came over and expressed a bit of dismay. He wanted to know how I managed to finish under 30 minutes, when all of the previous winners needed just under an hour. I didn't have an answer. Maybe I pushed myself a bit harder than they did.

The size of this challenge is not overwhelming in any case. An hour later, I managed to eat a meal at In-N-Out while visiting relatives nearby. If you like pho, give this place a try. Their vanilla pudding wasn't bad either. Don't expect to see any writing on the wall.

Preview: West Coast Hot Dog Eating Championship 2011

The field posing with hot dogs

Tonight's the night. In Mission Viejo, possibly the largest gathering of eating talent outside of an IFOCE event will congregate at the Derby Deli to determine the West Coast Hot Dog Eating Championship. 

 

Who do we have here? The best independent talent in Southern California, mixed up with some of the best talent the eating world has to offer. Anyone who believes that an independent contest is lame, subpar, or merely features a big dog beating up on barflies, better open up their eyes and take notice. 

 

Look at the list...

Takeru Kobayashi

Tom Gilbert

"Furious" Pete Czerwinski 

Dale Boone

Richard LeFevre (not pictured) 

Kevin Ross 

Johnnie Excel   

Aaron Ybarra

Naader Reda

Mary Bowers (making her debut) 

With the exception of the lone female in the contest, every person billed approaches the table with considerable experience. Every rank in the contest will be hard fought. On the line is eternal glory, $10,000 and a bunch of trophies.

I'm looking for Kobayashi to eat 70 hdbs or more. Even if he doesn't, it's going to be a hell of an event. And the interplay between Tom Gilbert and "Furious" Pete, who went into sudden death to decide last year's title, will be electrifying. 

 

Could we possibly see an upset tonight? 

2011 Rock The Tot

Three hours after finishing the Killer Burrito at Chile Red, it was time for a tater tot eating contest. The location was Bar Louie in Arcadia, some 30 miles from Rancho Cucamonga.

The contest is held annually in April at every Bar Louie location in the United States. Every location crowns a champ, and the champ with the highest total is declared the national champion.

The staff was incredibly pumped up for the contest. There was a small crowd gathered, and a long table across from the bar was arranged for the participants to stand behind. We would have 6 minutes to devour as many tater tots as possible. They provided us with ketchup, water, and a paltry amount of napkins.

The contest format played to the absolute opposite of my strengths. 6 minutes is a sprint. I'm more of a marathon runner, from an eating standpoint. All I could hope was that I would be able to outlast the local competition, and that there were no Johnnie Excels hiding in the woodwork.

As a side note, Excel dominated the contest at the Anaheim location with a winning total near 5 lbs. You can read a summary of his contest experience here. He had a close battle with Aaron Ybarra, another talented eater with speed skill.

So... 6 minutes to get through as many 1 lb baskets of tots as possible. That's the gist of it. The bell rang and we were off.

My strategy was CRUSH-BITE-DRINK-SWALLOW. The manager was doing play-by-play commentary during the contest and said he had never seen anyone eat the tots like that before.

Well, it worked for me that night. I was the only competitor (out of 8) to finish two baskets and start on the third. The winning total was 2 lbs and 6 ozs, a low figure when compared to other tot-rockers across the United States. Second place finshed two baskets (2 lbs), and third place was right on his heels.

The $250 Bar Louie gift card, restaurant t-shirt, and makeshift title belt were a nice score.

It was a very exciting night. And a damn close finish. I'm hoping to come back to next year's contest and put up a considerably better total in the 6 minutes.

No pre-contest burrito next time!