Farrell's 2012 Recap

Farrell's Ice Cream Eating Championship concluded its third annual installment yesterday. The contest was hosted at the Brea location and featured a stage. As an event, it can't yet compete with larger productions but it's certainly getting there.

This was the first year that the contest featured a "Professional Eaters" division. Damon Wells, Kevin Ross, Matt Cohen, Frank Paulin, Ron Koch, Shawn Kirby and I filled the chairs of this brand new division and we represented it well.

Matt "Sweet Tooth" Cohen, last year's Men's Champion

Previous years did not have a "Professional" division. The seperate Men's and Women's championships were decided by whomever could finish a 6-scoop Pig's Trough the fastest. This year, pros qualified for their special section by eating the Pig's Trough. I ate it several times for various promotional events, and my best times were 1:30 and 1:45.

At the championship, each eater would be responsible for tearing through a 5.5+ lb Zoo Sundae. This mammoth dessert comes in a huge bowl and packs in standard scoops of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream along with different types of sherbert and whipped cream.

Things change when you go from eating a 6-scoop sundae to a bowl holding 30 scoops. The contest goes from one favoring short-gamers to people who eat for the long haul. Additionally, ice cream is a difficult contest food. Sweet, dairy, and cold isn't for everyone, but it's one of my best. I knew this would be close.

Damon Wells, your champion. He finished in 6 minutes and 2 seconds

The contest was staged under first-to-finish rules. We were provided with warm water and coffee at our discretion. They gave us short introductions, and before long we were off. Chugging away like madmen starving for dairy.

Damon Wells and I stood next to each other at the center of the contest stage. Matt Cohen really deserved center stage because he was last year's champ, but they decided to give us the spots because we had the fastest qualifer times (1:45 and 1:44 respectively - edge to Damon). The newly independent Wells gave me a run for my money, and I did my part to push the hell out of him.

When the smoke cleared, Damon froze his mouth to a jaw dropping win at 6:02. That's nearly 6 lbs of ice cream in six minutes... the rest of us paused a second, but remembering there were prizes for second and third place, plowed on. I finished my bowl at 7:17, marking my first contest finish ahead of Ron Koch. Ron finished maybe 20-30 seconds later.

No one else finished their bowls at that point, and I can't really blame them. There was nothing else up for grabs. Ouch and ouch. My teeth and mouth were stone cold at the end, and I didn't realize it until we stopped eating. Cohen stopped eating minutes before, and Kevin Ross stopped with about a pound to go. This was my first finish ahead of Kevin in a non-hot dog eating contest. Ice cream's definitely not his food of choice, but it was his birthday and a hell of a way to celebrate. I know he'll slaughter me (not literally) the next time we meet.

Shawn Kirby stood at my left. One enthusiastic soul.



Frank Paulin came hungry and left happy

The view from the stage is incredible

Took second place, finishing in 7 minutes and 17 seconds.

Until next year! Yum!

Farrells Ice Cream Heating Up Summer

The 3rd installment of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor's annual Ice Cream Eating Challenge returns this July. As usual, it is a charity event benefiting Children's Hospital of Orange County. The contest itself is going to be a little different this year. For one thing, the championship is going to be contested on the street outside the new downtown Brea location. The other exciting element is the development of a "professional eater" category.

Eaters will qualify for the professional category by consuming a "Pig Trough" during the qualifier period (pictured above, basically a large banana split). At the final, contestants will be required to eat a 6 lb Zoo Sundae. The pro division will also offer a cash prize for the first time in the contest's history.

Matt "Sweet Tooth" Cohen won the 2011 Farrell's Ice Cream Eating Challenge last Summer. He's moving into the new professional division as its defending champion. Matt's skill with sweet, dairy, and cold is well-known, but no doubt other contenders will step up to battle him in 2012.



The qualifying period for all categories of the contest begins June 18 and runs through July 8. Finals will be held on July 15, 2012 in Brea.

More details will be released shortly. Do you have what it takes to become the 2012 Farrell's Ice Cream Eating Champion?

Superior Ice Cream

In November 2009, I took a drive up North and made a 20-mile detour off the Highway 99 to the city of Hanford. It's slightly off the main drag - I remember a long drive on a state highway with a depressing speed limit of 55 mph - but it is a beautiful, charming little town. I really liked the downtown area. They have all those little shops lined up alongside one other, and those predictable lamposts up and down both sides of the street. I was refreshed when I saw this place. It was a nice change of pace after 200 miles of freeway.

While walking around the city, I sampled some pizza from Fatte Albert's Pizza Company. It was definitely good stuff. They claim that their 28" round pie is the largest pizza available in the city of Hanford. I ordered a small cheese pizza, and I must say it was one of the tastiest pizzas I'd ever eaten.... even if it was on the pricier side.

After the pizza, I continued on to Superior Dairy. I found out about this place from the EatFeats website. They were supposed to have a huge ice cream sundae on the menu, and I decided I needed to eat it. Life is simple sometimes.

The place looked nice enough from the outside. I was delighted to find that it was open for business. You never know with some of these places.

On the inside, it was clean and reminded me of those old time diners. The only problem I had was the speed of service - I sat in one of the booths quite awhile before the servers paid any attention to me. I was forewarned though: several reviews off Yelp told the same story. I sure hoped the food would make up for the waiting times.

And there it was on the menu: The Superior Oversize Sundae, or the S-O-S, billed as a 7-scoop sundae with the works. I didn't think I'd need any help finishing this one - no matter what the menu said. I confidently placed my order and asked for a Chocolate Coke to go along with it.

My drink arrived several minutes before the dessert. I thought it had an interesting taste. I'd never exeprienced the mix of Coca Cola with chocolate ice cream, but I think the tastes went well together. It was certainly incredibly sweet and sugary. It was good prep for what was coming out of the kitchen.

SOS! This thing was big! At that point, this was the biggest ice cream dish I'd ever ordered. The most intimidating part of it is the mountain of whipped cream that really prevents you from digging into the sundae. And yes, that is a paper umbrella atop the whole monstrosity. I saved it for awhile, but I haven't been able to find it. I assumed it fell apart and I threw it away.

The ice cream tasted delicious.... vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and a bunch of sherbet flavors decked out with flavor sauces and a banana. Unfortunately the tastes became muddled together quickly, but it was really high quality stuff.

I enjoyed every bite of it. I just wish the flavors didn't get so mixed up. Ice cream is one of my favorite foods to eat en masse, and it's a better experience when you can savor the differences in taste. I'm going to blame the whipped cream - it was hard to attack the ice cream with so much cream in the way, and by the time I cleared through the whipped cream a significant portion of the sundae had melted over the goblet. I guess I needed to eat more quickly.

I acheived the all-clear in roughly 8-9 minutes. This wasn't a challenge or anything, but I definitely enjoyed my experience at Superior Dairy. If I'm ever in Hanford, I'll make sure to stop by and sample another SOS. Maybe I'll eat two.