Lindy's Take 2

I was down in Tucson for some of my winter break. Went to Lindy's with my sister, Emmi, and John to take on the 3 lb OMFG Burger again. My first try,six months ago, ended in defeat, as I was only able to get down 7.5 of the 9 patties. I wasn't expecting to do much better this time, as I was well out of eating-monster shape. In fact, if I came close, I think I'd consider it a success.

So there it went, the first 12 minutes seeing me take down 5 patties with little problem. Then in the next 5 or so minutes, I put away another two. I put the remaining three in the buns and tried to eat it like a normal burger. But in the next 15 minutes, I managed only 3 or 4 bites in, and ended up about the same as my last try. I think I could have physically eaten more, but the taste of grease and meat was just so nauseating, I couldn't get around it.

I'll get it one day. Next up: redo of the Pho Challenge or the Sushi roll up in the SF Bay Area. Maybe I'll take a pass at some buffet in LA before that.

Challenges:
Overall: 6-9
Quantity: 3-9

School's out!

... for winter! But man it's been a while since i've even really thought about food challenges. I think i neglected to mention back in early september that Bobby Shariat and I took down some fairly easy challenge (1 lb hamburger) at Famous Burgers in the LA area.



Now that I'm back in Tucson, I've been trying to devote my time almost exclusively to sleeping. But in the few hours that I've been conscious and not watching entire seasons of The Wire, I have been trying to get my legs in gear to start running. With this increased emphasis on working out, I've also decided that I should place some attention back on the eating challenges. With that in mind, I fully intend to go on a hike tomorrow and then finish it off with my second attempt at Lindy's 3-lb burger. I don't expect to finish it, but would like to gauge where I'm at, as in my upcoming bay area trip I fancy that I will be able to kill that gigantic bowl of pho that, until now, has completely and utterly had my number.

Challenges:
Overall: 6-8
Quantity: 3-8 (includes two losses at Taco Tuesday's at OB's)

To: Katie Foss

Dear Katie,

While it is true that I have been eating, I have not been attacking many challenges lately. Or even training heavily. My uncertain schedule makes it difficult to try planning events.

However, i sometimes randomly take down a lot of food. Two chipotle burritos for lunch last Saturday is just one example of this. As I start an exercise routine tomorrow, I perhaps will be able to set my schedule a little better. This should help me tackle challenges in the LA area.

Best,

Shashank the Tank

And...?

OK, OK. I had to take some time off. But after a feverish (literally) run through the end of MBA hell-week, the partial temporary loss of hearing in my left ear, and a gravity-obeying 360-deg full-spin center-lane-to-guardrail and back crash my car and I went through (but only one survived)... after all of that.... I am back.

This Sunday, I'm thinking about going for a two-fer. Re-visit the XXXL Fatburger Challenge at a different restaurant in the AM, and then follow it up with a 1-lb burger with fries and coleslaw in the PM at Famous Hamburger in Bell, CA.

Mix it up a little. Livin' it up a little.

Fatburger Friday

A few of us from the MBA school went to the Fatburger on Figueroa St to try the Triple Kingburger. Three half-pound patties and loaded with toppings, this giant burger was bigger than my face.

When they brought out the single Kingburger for other people, I was a little worried. Then we saw Bobby's Double King, and I realized that I was definitely in for more than I expected. Tim "The Shermanator" Sherman and I got our Triples, and the size of this thing put normal burgers to shame.
Still, I was pretty confident that I could do it, having gotten through 2.5 lbs of the Lindy's burger in Tucson.

As we dug in, the first thing that got us was the sheer heat. I pulled mine apart to let it cool a little faster. El Senor Shermanator was just plowing through it and had an early lead, and of course Bobby with his itty bitty burger was making some dents.

But in the end my tactic paid off as I was able to power through the end and barely edge Tim in a photo finish.

The maddest props to my boy Will Hong for cutting this piece together:


Challenges:
Overall: 5-6
Quantity: 2-6

Getting back on the horse

It's been a while since I could legitimately say i was "training." Today I finally got some time to go to costco, so I bought myself a whole lot of meat. And some broccoli and eggs. And toothbrushes. But that's beside the point.

I was able to simultaneously have enough time and food to cook myself a luxuriously simple meal - 1 lb of burger meat, 2 eggs, and 3/4ths lb of broccoli. Total post cooking weight = 1.8 lbs. Followed by half a gallon of water. Stretch that stomach, whoa whoa.

Some MBA'ers and I are planning on hitting up Fatburger on Friday to take a look at their Triple Kingburger Challenge.

Weight Watch: 181.5 (post meal)

Lunchin' at Chipotle

Had two Chipotle burritos for lunch. They were about 60% normal chipotle size though. Rip-off.

Leisurely Challenge

Yesterday afternoon, I needed a break from schoolwork, so I impulse-went to El Tepeyac to take a look at the Manuel's Special burrito. This burrito was no joke, weighing in at an average between 4.5 - 5 lbs. I didn't expect to finish today, as I'd had no prep, but even so, this thing was quite a beast.
I was quite relaxingly digging into this bad boy burrito while researching Tiffany & Co on my Droid for my Strategy class. I got about halfway through, and decided to call it a day. I'm definitely going back for this with some preparation. I'm hoping I can double my eating prowess if I don't eat a large lunch, drink more water all day to keep that stomach expanded, and just be careful about eating the day before. It's gotta happen.

On the Radar

L.A. Area eating challenges to keep on the radar:

60 Chicken Nuggets in Half Hour - this is just fun with friends

Restaurant Challenges:
Taco Tuesday Challenge at OB's - 10 large tacos
Triple Kingburger Challenge at Fatburger - 1.5lb burger in 6 min
Big Bertha Burrito at Los Gringos Locos - big burrito, no time limit
Bikkuri Don at Wakasaya - large bowl of seafood and rice in half hour
Ninja Roll Challenge at Yagumo Sushi - 2 extremely spicy tuna hand rolls

Week #1 - Complete

Got through the first week of class. It was pretty insane. I didn't do too much on the eating front, probably just enough to keep the capacity near current max. A little eating and lots of water. Nothing quite like it. I'm hoping to hit some sort of challenge in the next week or two. Gotta keep it going.

Weight Wattch: 179 lbs

So busy

Things have been out of control busy. I'm slipping behind slowly. Probably because I update a blog instead of doing my assigned reading. Yeahh... so anyway, not much news to report. Been trying to eat a good amount at all the "free" orientation lunches and dinners.
Finally cooked again today - I went to Costco and bought five 1-lb tubes of ground beef. I got super lazy and ended up eating a whole pound for dinner. Lazy and eating more, you ask? Yeah, I was lazy and didn't want to re-wrap the damn thing so i decided to cook it all and save some for tomorrow. Then once it was done cooking, i got lazy and didn't want to wait for it to cool and put in tupperware, so I just ate it. 'Nuff said.

The weight is not good, so I'm not going to report it today. But I am forecasting a decline once I get on a good schedule.

Orientated

First day of orientation today at Marshall, I was able to throw down a slightly large lunch from the buffet, but nothing really remarkable. We'll see how the rest of orientation goes... I think my next challenge will be another spice one. I know, how can I even think of that after the horrors of last night? But I don't want to start training for quantity until I have my gym access at USC. My miserable attempts at swimming are only doing so much.

Weight Watch: 180.5 lbs

Orochon Ramen Challenge

Where: Orochon Ramen, Downtown Los Angeles

The Challenge: Eat a large bowl of their spiciest ramen, the Special #2, in under 30 minutes.

As I waited for my bowl of ramen to arrive, I sat with Diddy and Chomscar (aka Aditya and Omar) and watched as a man nearby struggled with the challenge. It looked like every bite he took was more painful than the last, and he finally succumbed to the heat and gave up. He and his family wished me the best of luck, convinced I would have a similarly difficult time. I had walked into the challenge thinking it would be a piece of cake, my recent experience with the Buffalo Wild Wings challenge giving me a little cockiness. But watching this man struggle put the fear right back in me. Inspiring stuff, to be sure.

I got my bowl, and tried to size it up. The first few tastes weren't bad at all, except it was a smoking hot temperature. About ten minutes in, I really hadn't done much damage. Diddy got me a cup of ice, and I put a few cubes in to cool it down. After this, I was able to go to town. That's when the spice started to get to me. It wasn't all that spicy all at once, like the wings in Santa Clara, but a slow and permeating spice that built up to a roaring crescendo. 15 minutes in, and a good chunk of food down, I started to get the shakes, the sweats, and my palms started going numb. I thought I might fail my first spice challenge. The quantity was getting to me, and so was the spice. Things looked bad.But then a group of people sitting to my right started chanting for me. Re-inspired, I took up the bowl and downed as much fiery liquid as I could.
The bowl wasn't as deep as I had thought, and I was re-energized. I took a minute to let my mouth cool a little, and then pushed through the end of the bowl to the cheers of the entire restaurant. And now my picture hangs "eternally" (a month?) on the Orochon Wall of Bravery. A fiery success!
Fun Fact #1 - the group to my right who pushed me through the end were big Man v Food fans and had traveled to LA with the partial purpose of visiting the restaurants Adam had gone to. They were so thrilled that someone was doing and beat the challenge while they were there that we had a 10 minute photo shoot with them after I had bought some milk.

Fun Fact #2 - This is by far the worst I've felt post challenge. Lets just say... fire in, fire out, fire out, fire out, fire out.

Spice Challenges: 3-0!
Overall: 4-6

Next up: Orochon Ramen

I've been shying away from tackling any quantity challenges lately for three reasons.
First, I am getting fatter and there's no way that this high-carb regime is healthy for me, especially without any exercise. I tried to run yesterday, but my old leg injuries flared up and have put me out of commission for at least a few weeks. I can swim, but I flounder so much in the water that I'm not sure my body is getting a real workout while my lungs scream "stop, stop please, what are you doing?" and I leave the pool within twenty minutes. But, I digress.
Second, my confidence is shaken in my ability to eat large quantities. After racking up fail after fail, whose wouldn't be? I need some serious training time before I go at it again with any semblance of stone cold will power. I know I can do better than probably 90% of humans out there, but to beat these challenges, you need to be in an elite class. I'm just not quite there yet. Soon enough.
Third, there aren't too many food challenges in the L.A. area. I'll be here for two years or more. If I hit them all too soon, I'll run out and get bored and that could spell the end of a glorious era. So, I've got to pace myself.

However, there is a spice challenge at Orochon Ramen (also featured on Man v Food), and it seemed like it was fairly easy for Adam, so I can only assume it will be similarly doable for me. I probably shouldn't get too cocky, I'm sure it's quite terrible, but c'mon... after those hellfire wings in Santa Clara, I'm really not sure there can be much worse. So the Orochon Ramen challenge is fair game. Possibly later today...

Damn USC scale

Now that I live in LA (as of two nights ago), I stopped by campus for a 5 hour session on how to format my resume (wooo). Before the session, I was able to make it to the USC Lyon Center, where I will work out for the next two years. I was able to fit in a one minute stair climbing session before I hit the locker room. As I weighed myself on their scale, I came out to a ghastly 188.5 lbs, a good 5 lbs heavier than my scale attributes my girth. I'm pretty sure that's more accurate, sadly... We'll be getting back on track soon....

weight watch: 188.5?

Tucson + Me = Full

I have not been near hungry for over an hour in Tucson this visit. After the OMFG fail at Lindy's, the next day was spent recovering until it was all-you-can-eat sushi time at Sushi Hama. My friend Brad and I put away around $110 worth of sushi, all at the low price of $28 (total) after coupon. Very nice. We were both too full to fully enjoy Saturday night libations on 4th Ave.

I then spent Sunday partially recuperating from that stint, and then ate a large quantity of Chinese food (from Panda Village) for dinner, followed by drinks at The Depot on Ft. Lowell. Pretty full already, I still decided it was a great idea to get 3 taquitos and a very large burrito at Nico's to round out the night.

Needless to say....
Weight Watch: 184 lbs. Whoops...

OMFG Burger at Lindy's

I wish I had pictures of this. It was a beautifully created, elegantly massive burger. I went to Lindy's on 4th ave in Tucson with my friends Bobby and James to take on this 3 lb burger, as featured on Man v Food. Bobby also attempted it with me.

This 3 pound burger was split into nine 1/3rd-pound patties, with slices of cheese between them, and topped off with lettuce and tomatoes. If I ate it all in 20 min, I'd get it for free, plus my picture on the wall and a $5 voucher for a future date. If i ate in in 30 min, I'd have to pay for the burger $20, but get everything else.
I started off at a pretty good pace, getting 6 patties out of the way in the first ten minutes. That's two pounds of food. I started to slow down considerably after that. I got through another patty and then put the remaining two on the buns in burger format. I made it through about a quarter of this final burger before the 30 minutes ran out, and was left with the option of trying to finish it for pride's sake or to save my night and not feel miserable for the afterparty on 4th.

I chose the latter. This is one of those that i think a good 5 months of training will get me fully prepared for. I just need to increase my consumption by 20%.

Until next time, Lindy's. :-/

Quantity: 1-6
Overall: 3-6

I really need to stick it to some spice challenges to pad my stats here.

weight watch: a totally dehydrated 177

Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin' Challenge

The Challenge: 12 Blazin' (their hottest) wings in 6 minutes or less, no napkins and no drinks
If I win: Pay $9.99 and get a free t-shirt

The Competitor: Me. Look, if you haven't figured this out this late in the game...

The Result: I demolished it. Under 3 minutes. The waitress was impressed. I was nonplussed.

Honestly, I saw this coming the whole way when you take into account the factors involved:
1) Its a national franchise. How crazy can they get?
2) Its me. I don't want to get too cocky, but c'mon.

This was by far easier than the Hellfire Challenge in Santa Clara. I'm not sure if I described that one, but picture me with bloodshot eyes, snot dripping from my nose, my mouth, face, and hands on fire waiting the five minutes of torture after finishing the wings until I could use liquids for my insides and out. I chugged a quart of milk straight after just to try to get rid of the burn throughout my body.
Compared to that, this was a walk in the park. Three minutes and done. No eyes watering, no snot. Ate some fries after and finished my water. The waitress was cautioning me not to touch my eyes or any part of my body - she seemed really intent on warning me against touching my wangdoodle. I wanted to tell her that I was no rookie here, but I didn't want to spoil it for her or the manager who seemed really impressed by what I had just done. But... what they did have was a sick shirt to compensate.

I didn't even have time to take pictures before it was over.

Spice: 2-0
Overall: 3-5

C'mon Tucson...

What a disappointment... one of the spicy wing challenges (at Thunder Canyon) has been discontinued, one of them has been temporarily suspended so they can work on their wing sauce (at Wings over Broadway) - but they might have it ready by Monday, and the last one is a national franchise, which I was least excited to do out of the three (at Buffalo Wild Wings). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love BWW, but they are a national franchise and I was expecting more out of Tucson than this.

Still though, BWW, the OMFG at Lindy's, and hopefully Wings over Broadway are still on the slate.

LA -> Tucson

So by now i was supposed to have done 2 more challenges according to "the plan." But things didn't go quite according to schedule in LA (much quicker than I anticipated), so I decided to put a hold on the spicy sushi challenge. Instead I had all-you-can eat sushi at Midori Sushi in the valley. Yum! Also stuffed.

Today I left for Tucson and was planning on making a stop in Scottsdale to take on a 2lb burger + fries + 50 oz coke challenge. But as I was driving, I started getting really antsy and tired of being on the road and made up my mind not to waste 2 more hours than necessary taking care of this challenge. Instead, I stopped by a In-N-Out and ordered two 4x4's with fries. As I waited for my order, I did a little research on the patties, and realized that they're 1/8th of a lb. So not that big.
I got my burgers and started to dig into them. Halfway through the second one, I realized that it was a 3x3, and not a 4x4. Son of a... But i put them down pretty quickly, so maybe I could have finished the 2lb burger? maybe...

I'll try to do a wings challenge tomorrow though.

Weight Watch: new scale, but its reading 181.5

Absurdity...

...is eating a 2 lb burrito for lunch like its the norm.

Adios, fair Bay Area.

Don't call it a comeback...

2.2 lbs of chicken, broccoli, and eggs in around fifteen minutes. Followed up with 50 oz of water before the half hour struck. Doesn't this seem doable? This guy's clearly antithetical appearance to my own so markedly makes it much more feasible sounding.

I'm 1-4 in quantity challenges. That's miserable. I hope Arizona brings me some respite.

Weight Watch: 182 lbs (post dinner) <- seems reasonable.

Variety killed the cat?

I'm getting a little tired of my daily cuisine. For the last few days its been nothing but hot dogs. Yesterday i ate 13 hot dogs and a sprig of broccoli. Today i had 7 hot dogs for breakfast and lunch, and then 1.3 lbs of chicken for dinner. Tomorrow, I have 3 chicken breasts and 5 eggs to get through. Its been ok, because I spice it up quite nicely, but eating just meat might not be the best thing.

If I believe truly and wholeheartedly in Gary Taube's book Good Calories Bad Calories, it might be an ok (or ideal) diet. And honestly, the ~5 lbs I've gained while eating ridiculous amounts of challenge food and training food in the last month and a half has been well under what was expected. I think this is partially because I keep carbs and unnecessary calories to a limit during the week, and then splurge a little on weekends with the challenges and normal weekend activities. But on the other hand...

I can't wait until i start exercising again, and potentially be able to eat what I want. Or at least to spice it up a little bit with a variety of veggies, rather than try to focus on low carb ones.

Weight Watch: 180 lbs (after dinner)

Killer Whale Roll Update

Folks, my apologies for the delay. These last two weeks have been some ca-razy times here in the San Fran as I get ready for my departure.

Last Friday, June 25th a few coworkers (Terrell Gaige and Daniel Kim + other non-competitors) and I traveled to Bay Shabu Sushi Sake in the West Portal, SF to take on the Killer Whale Roll Challenge. It was a massive 4lb roll of sushi. As I once described it - a tempura roll and potato surrounded by a metric ton of rice, topped off with pieces of eel, shrimp, and tuna. As long as my arm, and much thicker.

In the 30 min we had to demolish this beast of a roll, we did our best to start at an aggressive pace. Terry and I pushed through at a good clip through the first half of the roll in under 12 minutes, but as the sheer amount of rice and the dryness of said rice became a challenge, we slowed considerably. Towards the end, I started swallowing rice down with water, but couldn't get the whole thing down. All in all, it was a good challenge, and quite delicious for the first few pieces. But I only made it through 10/13 pieces by the end of regulation.

Following this challenge, I have determined that I need some serious training before attempting more quantity challenges. I've been eating a lot of hot dogs recently, and July 4th has inspired me to make it to Coney Island in 2-3 years.

Some upcoming challenges (maybe?):
Sunday July 11 - Yagumo Sushi Ninja Roll in Van Nuys, CA (spicy)
Tuesday July 13th - Giligans 2# Burger in Scottsdale, AZ
July 14th - 19th - a slew of wing challenges in Tucson, AZ
Sometime in Tucson - OMFG burger at Lindys
July 20 - Holy Moly Burrito at Crazy Carlos' in Peoria, AZ

Weight Watch: 177.5 lbs

Slow and Steady

These last few days, I've been trying to get back to eating low-carby and just eating a LOT of food. Although eating lots of fat and protein really doesnt make you feel like eating too much. Although I'm not sure I've made a lot of eating gains in terms of expansion or ability, I have pushed my weight back in a positive (numerically negative) direction. I really think that's going to be the tricky part of this new hobby of mine, trying to stay fairly healthy. I need to start rehabbing my leggies so I can start running. That's going to be key to being able to eat like a crazy.

Weight Watch: 175.5 lbs

Tomorrow: 4 lb sushi roll.

Revenge of the Pho Challenge

Yesterday, I went back to the Pho Garden to take on the Pho Challenge again with my trusty sidekicks Eric and Anna. This time i had a gameplan: cool the pho down with a pitcher of ice, use a fork to get pho consumed as quickly as possible, and just try to be an overall champion.

I actually did a pretty good job the first 20 minutes eating like a winner, but the next 40 were a series of battles between my mind and my willpower. In the end... the pho won again. But I'd say ate somewhere in the 80-90% range of the total amount, up from my devastating 40-60% the time before. At this rate, I may need two bowls the next time I go.

Overall record: 2-3, Bulk Record: 1-3

Next Challenge: 4lb Sushi Roll on Friday. I'm predicting a narrow victory for myself.


Update: Generally feeling like butt today, haven't felt hungry and feel like im getting a cold. Does it have to do with eating a ton of noodle carbs? I don't know.

Ramen

6 packs of ramen in 11 minutes. Cya ramen. That was a lot of salt.

Sunday: Pho Challenge, partie Deux


Weight Watch: 181 lbs. :-(

Burriiittttoosss

So there's this place called La Pinata that we went to to watch the soccer game. I thought it'd be a good idea to order two pretty large burritos and see how much i could get down. We're coming up on our office trip (June 25th!) to the Bay Shabu "Killer Whale Roll" challenge - 4 lbs of sushi in under 30 minutes. I believe 4-5 of us are going to try it. If we win, its free and a picture on the wall. If we lose, we shell out $30 apiece.

I think I got about one and a third burritos consumed in the half hour, and picked at another sixth for the next 5-10 minutes. We went back to the office and weighed the remaining half burrito on the mail scale. It came in at 1.11 lbs. So, overall, I think I got about 3 lbs done in the half hour. Gotta pick up the pace a little, and the sushi is mine. Its really going to come down to how much i can shovel away in the first 10 minutes. I'm thinking i need to eat at least three-quarters of it by that point.

Links to the Killer Whale Roll:
Kartel Blog
Joey Posterous Blog

Fun right?!

Update: I'm also watching my weight climb daily into the 185 range. Then I breathe a sigh of relief as it starts to plummet back down to manageable 176-178 ranges. But it does still look like its progressively getting larger. I either need to find a new training idea or just let it happen until I start school.

176.5

Weighed in this morning at 176.5. I had taken a slight break from training for the weekend due to a few reasons. First, I was a little concerned about my 3 lb weight gain since starting, and although that can sometimes be attributed to daily weight fluctuations, I weighed in at 178 at a time when i should be at my lowest daily weight. Soo... there was that.
Also, weekends are really hard to maintain a routine, what with the eating at friends' dinner events, the boozin', and the general not controlling every minute detail of intake.
In any case, I was able to eat a head of cabbage on friday night, which wasn't actually that filling.
And today i hit the pizzeria again. I think I'm going to have to find an alternate solution. I need to find good meat for $1.50/lb or less to compete with the price/lb ratio! An unlikely story...

Exercise?

Today I re-visited the fine establishment at Mountain Mike's for their spectacular pizza buffet, and put down 11 slices in around 40 min. Of course when i say spectacular, i refer to the price of $6.31 after tax. Since this is lasting me an entire day of fullness (three meals), it seems quite fiscally responsible for me to continue training here.

However, it was also brought to my attention that Sonya "the black widow" Thomas and Takeru Kobayashi both stay so thin and fit (Kobayashi is jacked) with the addition of exercise to their training regimen. This is something I have not been including, and with the lack of: gym membership, the ability to run, the proximity of my bike, and the mental stamina to jump rope, I find it hard to build an exercise regimen that is both fun and effective.

Suggestions welcome.

Mountain Mike's Pizza Buffet

Yesterday was an off day, mostly just had some hot dogs and some lettuce.

Today I took a trip to the local pizza buffet. Pretty decent stuff, small location, nothing like a Pizza Hut buffet. I had the equivalent of 10 slices of medium pizza. I probably could have taken down 2-4 more slices if pressed. But I figured I wasn't dress rehearsing just quite yet, more trying to get a gauge of where I was at. Looks like I have some work to do still before I'm ready to take on some of these challenges with any sense of confidence.

I'm not at all certain I'm training properly... There's no online documentation.

Asia Buffet

Every time I visit a chinese buffet, I end up feeling like shit and regretting the decision afterward. This time was no different. As part of my rigorous training regimen, I determined that a trip to the buffet lines was an inevitable activity, and one that would determine where I stood.

If our bathroom scale is accurate, I believe I consumed ~5 lbs of food and water in roughly half an hour. However, shortly thereafter I spent an hour wondering if I could halt, what in this industry they like to call, a "reversal" from taking place. It was close, but, in the end, I prevailed.

Bring it, Killer Whale Roll. I'm ready. Maybe.

Challenge failure to materialize

For lunch yesterday I had the guey teaw rahd kang at Thai Satay in San Leandro. Medium spice. Big portions. Very good. They boast of winning almost all the 2006 East Bay restaurant awards. I forgot to check in on my foursquare app.

So I went out to San Francisco to this John's Snack and Deli place to check out their suicide kimchi burrito. When I got there, I saw it was an actual hole in the wall, and was informed that they didn't have it available, as it was half an hour to closing. I'm just going to scratch this one off the list and put it in the category "not worth the trouble, and probably too easy to do".

But i did have some baller dinner at Anh Hong in the Tenderloin. 7 course beef dinner? Sign me up again twice. Deelish.

Spirits soar!

In a remarkable comeback from yesterday's training disaster, I pulled through quite the routine today. After a hurried breakfast of a quart of milk, I arrived at lunch with some gusto. Using the mail-weighing scale at work, I clocked my lunch of more cabbage and pork at a middling 1.2 lbs. And put it down like clockwork.

Inspired by the mail scale, I went to the local Target after work and bought a $33 food scale for my home weighing needs [90 day return policy, bayybeeee! - I'm not yet that big of a spender]. This baby can handle weights up to 6 lbs (which I hope I don't need to test soon). After consulting with a colleague of mine, Mr. Diaz, I was given the advice not to boil meat fat, as it will give it that gross taste I complained of yesterday. Today, I grilled up some more pork, and added it to the already made cabbage/pork mix. My dinner came in weighing at a sizable 2 lbs.

Start your engines. I started leisurely shoveling the pork in my mouth, and this time, I felt much better. I was able to put down a good two thirds of it before hitting a slight wall, but powered through. I then chugged a quart of water and stopped my time. 20 minutes. Excellent.

Although certainly not eating at a pace to take in 4 lbs of sushi in 30 min like I'll have to do within two weeks, this was certainly a good step in that direction. I was feeling pretty good at the end, and I can only imagine that sushi will be more delish and palatable than this concoction of mine.

Tomorrow brings a slight break in the training, as I will be facing off against the Suicide Kimchi Burrito Challenge at John's Snack and Deli (link here - no pics but I'll make sure to take one tomorrow) at around 5:15pm PT. I'll be bringing some of that lactose-free whole milk goodness that got me through the aftereffects of the Hellfire Challenge with few adverse reactions.

I am... bad at this

So day one of training. After a light breakfast of two eggs, a light lunch of two hotdogs and some lettuce, i went to the grocery store to pick up foods to begin in earnest. Pounds of cabbage and pork buying later, I started to cook up a storm, while dranking a glass of whole milk and eating a third pound burger patty. I boiled around 6 lbs of food (estimated raw weight), and was hoping to get through a lot of it....

I shoveled about a quarter of it into a bowl, and started digging in. Within minutes, however, I began to hit a wall. The food was just so unappetizing, despite my best attempts to spice it up. Cabbage is still cabbage, and fatty pork is still fatty pork. About 20 minutes in, I realize that, although I'm starting to get full, the real problem is the way the fat feels in my mouth. Making me nauseous. I slowly get down the rest of the bowl, and throw in the towel.

This will be harder than I expected.

Training Day Zero

Tomorrow starts my unofficial training to take on a few eating challenges, starting in the bay area. I think I'm pretty set on the spice side, due to my Indian heritage, so I'll be focusing primarily on quantity. Because I don't want to relapse into huge lardo form, I'm thinking that my training will consist of large quantities of meat and veggies, and stretch out that capacity with water. Hopefully, I'll soon be ready to break out into the amateur scene like acne on a thirteen year old.

Some metrics to get us started:
Age: 24
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 175 lbs

Upcoming Challenges:
Korean Suicide Burrito at John's Snack and Deli, San Francisco, CA (tentative June 3, 2010)
Killer Whale Roll at Bay Shabu Sushi Sake, San Francisco, CA (tentative June 12, 2010)
Pho Challenge at Pho Garden, San Francisco, CA (tentative June 19, 2010)

Recap!

I've decided to chronicle my eating adventures and accomplishments. Recently I've been on a food challenge binge. Well, mentally at least. I haven't had that much opportunity to do them. I'm currently 2-2 overall against food. 1-0 in the spice dept, and 1-2 in the quantity dept.

1) Spike's Junkyard Dogs Challenge - Boston, MA - 6 dogs in an hour
Result: Fail. Just could not get the greasy things down.

2) Hoggy's Challenge - Crestview Hills, KY - Half slab of baby back ribs, half chicken, 7” pulled pork sandwich, cornbread, pickle, and side of onion rings.
Result: Win! I went here with a client team member and he urged me to try it. I got my free T-shirt bayyybeee!

3) SmokeEaters' Hellfire Challenge - Santa Clara, CA - 12 spicy wings in <10 min, plus keep it together for 5 min sans napkins or water. Result: May 22, 2010 Win! Put those suckers away in 4 min and watched hockey patiently as the 5 min ticked off. Helloooo free t-shirt.



4) Pho Garden Pho Challenge - San Francisco, CA - 2 lbs of pho and 2 lbs of meat in under an hour
Result: May 23rd, 2010 Fail. Oh god, so much pho. I'm coming back for this. I got a T-shirt, but I really want the epic size bowl with the win.