The Legend of Hogzilla

Yucca Valley is home to an interesting restaurant that shares space with a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle dealership. The Route 62 Diner is open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch. The interior was comfortable, there were a couple jukeboxes, and I noticed a fair amount of 1950s and 1960s memorabilia.

And for those who like their food extra large, Route 62 Diner offers the Hogzilla Burger Challenge for $16 (as of November 2009). That's a 2 lb patty with all the fixings on an oversized bun along with a basket of fries.  The motorcycle theme was cool - how often do you find a burger named after a bike?

The burger looked really good. It comes with a lot of vegetables. There's a few slices of American cheese hiding beneath the onion rings, tomatoes, and lettuce pieces. Just think of it as a salad on top of a huge meat slab.

After getting through the burger, I emptied the fry basket onto the plate. Anyone familiar with restaurant challenges will testify that this isn't a huge pile of fries. It was barely a half pound. I've probably eaten more fries at Jack in the Box or McDonalds. Unfortunately, these fries didn't impress. The burger was much fresher and fuller of flavor.

If you finish the combo inside of one hour, you'll get your picture on the wall and take home a t-shirt proclaiming your victory over the Hogzilla. My visit was back in November 2009, when a leisurely finish in 36 minutes was proclaimed a house record. The "shocked" manager told me I was the 16th successful person to tackle the Hogzilla.

Honestly, this place is a little remote. I wonder how many people have eaten the burger by now. Maybe someone's eaten two. Just rode in on their bike, chowed down, and roared off.

Yum Yum Diner

If you take the 215 freeway North through Riverside, you'll see a small restaurant off to the side as you pass the La Cadena Drive exit in Colton.

Yum Yum Diner. I liked the name. Reviews on Yelp seemed to do the place justice. It wasn't too far from a Denny's, so obviously they're doing one or two things right to stay in business. Prices are decent.

When I visited Yum Yum, something inspired to order a dish that never crossed my palate before. Liver and onions. Well, whatever else may be said, they certainly did a decent job of preparing it. The liver was strong, but it wasn't unbearable. Leaving it to the professionals this time around paid off. Don't remind me of the time I tried to cook beef kidney!

Making a Claim

 

 Some companies offer bold words. The La Pizza Loca chain claims that their 32-slice "La Gigante" is the world's largest delivered pizza. It says so right on the box.

 

It's definitely a sweet, saucy deal at $10. What's less certain is if the advertising rings true. Big Mama and Papa's Pizzeria in Hollywood offers both 36" round and 54"x54" square pizzas for delivery. Red Devil Pizza in Granada Hills offers up a 50" round. Those seem to be serious rivals for the world title. 

Well... they all make great food. I was just struck by the wording on the package. Maybe some committee of weights and measures will resolve this issue for us.

Sushi in the High Desert

  

Daikoku Japanese Steak House in Victorville offers an incredible promotion for all-you-can-eat sushi and hand rolls. Some people may object to eating raw fish so far from a water source... but you'd be missing out on a bargain. $12 for lunch, $15 for dinner. I ate 12 rolls and survived. The hardest part was exercising right afterward.

 Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sample everything on the menu. Yet.

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.