New #1!

You might remember that a few months ago T-bonz and I were in Albuquerque, New Mexico to go to a Morrissey show. We had dinner at the Standard Diner where I enjoyed their green chile cheeseburger. I proclaimed then that this burger was (and is) the best burger I had ever eaten. Anywhere. Number 1. Today I ate a hamburger that is definitely my new number 1 fast food/quick service burger (it displaces the Burger King Angus Beef Burger) and it is my #2 best burger ever.



Smashburger. BBQ, Bacon, and Cheese burger. 1/2 pound.



BBQ sauce, applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and Haystack Onions on an egg bun. Side of smashfries - tender and crispy fries tossed with rosemary, olive oil, garlic and other herbs for a great savory taste.



This is right after I took my first bite. OMG this thing is GOOD!

And here is the basket afterward:


A little greasy goodness dripped off the FRESH, never frozen 100% Angus Beef that is smashed, seared and seasoned on the grill. Perfect!

There are a handful of other smashburger menu options and you can create your own bun, cheese, toppings and sauce burger. So many choices but I can guarantee to you that I am not going to try the Mushroom Swiss smashburger.

If you are in or near Colorado, California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio or New Jersey and you want to eat a phenomenal burger then get to smashburger.

World's Biggest

The Carriage House Family Restaurant in Springfield claims to serve the World's Biggest Omelet. Do you spell it Omelet or Omelette? Either way it is big. Made with 15 eggs, veggies, ham, sausage, bacon and cheese. Plus lots of hash browns. And 4 pieces of buttered toast. It's big. The eating challenge is eat it in 30 minutes and it's free.


I'll try it!

I'm thinking it's going to be one huge ass omelet with the hash browns around it. Think spread out. But the omelet arrives and it's more a high pile of omelet and potatoes. The omelet is not one big omelet, but rather 5 3-egg omelets piled one on top of another. Sided by one big pile of potatoes and a plate of 4 buttered white bread pieces of toast. It is served on a 15-inch round pizza tray.


I decide to just have at it. I dig in. It is HOT! Steaming HOT! And the omelets are kind of slimy. Maybe from the oil? Despite being really hot and really oily, the omelet is really good at this point.


I make use of ketchup to cool the heat and drown out the oil taste.

At the beginning and for 10 or 15 minutes I am flying through the omelet and putting down some of the potatoes. At 15 minutes, I am only about halfway done. Then the dairy and eggs and oil starts to get to me. For the next few minutes I am taking smaller bites and the mouth starts to fill up and not clear out between food insertions. Not a good feeling.


I keep that up for a few minutes, and then throw in the towel since it is obvious I am not going to finish it. That was at the 27 minute point.


In hindsight, I think I should have separated the 5 omelets and eaten each one at a time. Doing that would have made it less of a big pile of food, and just one little omelet and then another and another and another and another. But who knows.

I don't know if the Carriage House indeed has the world's biggest omelet, but it is big, that's for sure.


After I had finished eating on the omelet, I tagged my nephew and he took his shot at it:

Thanks to T-bonz and the family for indulging me and being some terrific athletic supporters!

A full gallery of pictures is here.

Coming Up

My two-week break ends soon with a handful of contests in September and one in October. Here is the breakdown: wings, ice cream?, hot dogs, hot dogs?, brats, jalapeno, corn dogs, jalapeno. After that last contest in mid-October I will shut it down for 2 months and pick it back up in mid-December for the KPBI Wing Bowl which will open 2010.

So Far in 2009

Here is a list of eating contests and challenges I've done so far this year.

1/3 - Round 1 of KBPI Wing Bowl qualifiers, 1st
1/3 - Round 2 of KBPI Wing Bowl qualifiers, 1st
1/10 - Round 3 of KBPI Wing Bowl qualifiers, 4th
1/17 - Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin' Challenge, SUCCESS
1/24 - Semi-finals of KPBI Wing Bowl
2/20 - Steak challenge at DB, FAIL
3/8 - Round 1 of Rocky Mountain Oysters contest, 2nd
3/8 - Finals of Rocky Mountain Oysters contest, 2nd
3/29 - Digger's #1, FAIL
4/17 - 6 lb burrito in Pueblo, SUCCESS
4/23 - Rock the Tot contest, 2nd
5/3 - Digger's #2, FAIL
6/6 - Brighton Hot Dogs
6/14 - Pizza challenge #1, FAIL
6/28 - Pizza challenge #2, FAIL
7/3 - Media hot dog eating challenge Steve's kickoff
7/4 - Hot dog eating contest, 2nd
7/4 - Shoppe Cupcake eating contest, 3rd
7/11 - Qualifier for 2nd Annual Chow Down for Charity
7/23 - 7 lb burrito challenge at Jack-n-Grill, SUCCESS
7/26 - Finals for 2nd Annual Chow Down for Charity, 4th
8/1 - 5 lb burger challenge at Cactus Jack's, SUCCESS
8/5 - Pizza challenge at Beau Jo's, FAIL
8/8 - Rocky Mountain Oyster eating contest, 1st
8/15 - Pizza challenge #3, FAIL

Nice!

The chart shows the last few weeks of my weight. My weight has gone up. Und my weight has gone down. Und my weight has gone all ze vay arounddddddd.

Swim Doggies Swim!

The city had a doggy swim day at one of the pools that had closed for the season. I got burned really badly on my shoulders, back, and bald head but it was definitely worth it! Maxie didn't dig it too much, but Frankie was all over it. Hopefully we'll be able to find some more dog swim days soon! Remember, dogsarefunyes!

Here are the photos. There is some awesome video that I will post soon!

What's Up

I have the pizza eating challenge tomorrow. Third time is the charm, right? After that I will lay low for a few weeks before a run of stuff in the last half of September. Following those eating contests I think I will close down the 2009 cycle and look toward the 2010 cycle which will kick off with the KBPI Wing Bowl.

RMO Video

I have uploaded the video from the rocky mountain oyster eating contest at Jackson's. The red lighting made for an interesting hue in the video. The video shows my annihilation of the competition. The 2nd place finisher finished his pound of testicles about 2 minutes after me. But it was all good! Thanks to T-bonz for taking this video!

Double Digits

What better way to drown my sorrows over the whole Beau Jo's disappointment than to take in a pound of deep fat fried testicles.


Jackson's Lodo in Denver was the scene of the aforementioned testicular mastication. They kicked off their Testicle Festival with a rocky mountain oyster eating contest. You might remember that I entered an RMO eating contest in March. Those RMOs were baked. Mealy, livery-tasting, and not too good. I liked the bake preparation as that's much better health-wise than fried, but the fried ones certainly were much tastier. I would've had no idea I was eating balls if I had not known I was eating balls.


The rooftop patio was packed. Five of us stepped up to grab the fame. And the trophy. And the $100. I grabbed the table pole position - right in the middle. Usher was to my right. Dude was one spot farther. GQ to my left. Vato to his left.


The RMOs were brought out. Each of us got a 1 pound basket of fried goodness. Format - first to finish, then 2nd to finish, then 3rd. I had a bottle of water in my left hand, and would insert the food with the other. On go, I started and got off to a lead right away. These were pretty easy to get down. After the Beau Jo's, the roof of my mouth was sort of torn up. These certainly didn't help. But for the 3 minutes I was hungry, focused, and really wanted the trophy and the win.

My 3 minutes blew away the other guys. 2nd was about 5 minutes. 3rd a bit after that. Usher puked. And GQ got maybe 4 or 5 down.


#10. Hardware. Hundreds of drunk idiots chanting "Bite Me, Bite Me!". Good times, good times!


Here's a gallery.

Beau Jo's Review

I wrote the other day that 1958 teams have attempted the Beau Jo's Challenge since 1973. Only _11_ have finished the monster pizza in 1 hour. Now make that 1960 teams.

Jimmy and I meet up at high noon in Idaho Springs to take on the challenge. I had tried this in 2006. He had tried earlier this year. Both of our attempts were just that. Attempts.

We were definitely hungry. Definitely focused. We wanted it. Our strategy going in was to just eat. We didn't want to focus first on the crust or down the toppings first because of the possible flavor fatigue in doing that. The other team that was taking the challenge at the same time went the route of eating the toppings and bottom crust. They left the outer crust until the end. Actually when they were done with their pizza's inside they re-assembled the outer crusts into almost a complete circle.

The starting weight of our pizza, and coincidentally the other team's pizza, was 14.4 pounds. I was hoping for a weight closer to 12 pounds (their ad says 12-14 pounds) but it's all good. Six pounds of crust, three pounds of cheese, three pounds of meat, a pound of mushrooms, and over a pound of green peppers and onions.

At 20 minutes in, we had just about half of the pizza done. Good pace, no doubt. At 40 minutes in, there was maybe 1/4 left. Uh oh. 10 minutes later, we had not finished off much more. Then, we were out.

In the end, even though our approaches were radically different, our two teams ended up essentially tied. By weight remaining, we had 3.5 pounds and the other team had 3.2. So they won by weight left, but I think our remainder would have been easier to keep eating if we had to. That crust is just too thick and requires too much chewing at the end. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other.
Our remainder
Remainder for other team

The owner of Beau Jo's had come down to watch these two teams try the Challenge. He got plenty of photos and video. It's not too often that there are two simultaneous attempts. And each of the teams also had $75.00 bills. The owner crumpled those up, along with the bills for T-bonz and Jimmy's peeps. That was cool! Thanks again, Chip!

On the morning of the Challenge I weighed-in at 147.0 lbs. Later that day, a few hours after the Challenge my weight was 157.0 lbs. Even though I ate more than at Cactus Jack's I felt much better at Beau Jo's. About 20 minutes after the eating, and outside the restaurant, about 4 ounces of recovery water came back up. Technically a reversal, my fourth since I started eating in September 2005.

I will have a complete gallery of photos and some video up soon.

Here is a link: Link to an attempt by two guys in Denver. Their pizza was only 12.1 pounds!

Full gallery of our attempt.

More from Beau Jo's

There are photos, video and words coming soon.

Beau Jo's Challenge

Next: Beau Jo's

Beau Jo's Challenge. Team of two. One hour. Do the math here! 1958 teams
have tried in 25 years, only * 11 * have conquered it! That's just over
1/2 of 1%! No team has successfully finished it since 1995!

Bust This!

T-bonz, Mommye, and I went up to Evergreen to go antiquing. Lunch time, and we go to Cactus Jack's Saloon and Grill. T-bonz went with the delicious burrito. Mommye with a good looking burger. I take the Bust It Big Challenge.


Had to wait a while for it to be cooked and brought to our creekside table, but it was worth the wait! The meat was definitely fresh never frozen. Gooey white cheese, fresh vegetables, and the out-of-this-world locally-baked bun! This thing is going to be good!


First bite

And it was good at the beginning. I put down the first quarter in 4 minutes. 1/2 in 11 minutes. Then I began to slog. 3/4 in 32 minutes. Finished in 1 hour, ten minutes. For the last half I had to hit the water and ketchup hard. I probably would not have pushed to get it down if the crowd on the patio was not behind me and cheering me on like they were. One guy in particular was quite vocal, but it was all good.

Used a lot of ketchup

Getting there

Finished!

Taking as long as I did to complete this was crappy in a few ways. From about 45 minutes until I finished, the burger and fries had gotten cold. Delicious in the beginning, but not so delicious now. The crust on the meat was hard now, the fries - great when hot - were cold and tasteless now, and the cheese was solidified. So to anyone else doing this challenge, eat fast and be complete before the burger and fries get cold.

Nice bulge!

This challenge was so much harder to complete than the big breakfast burrito at Jack-n-Grill. Maybe I had a bit of an off day or something. Whatever it was I was useless for the rest of the day. If I was in to abortions - of the food type - this would have been a good time to do it. But I'm not in to food abortions, so I didn't. I've only reversed in competition once. I've reversed during one challenge. I've reversed after one challenge. But no abortions. Take the pain, kids.

Long ride home

I am the first to complete the entire challenge successfully. A few weeks ago a guy did finish food, but then he reversed after his shot of tequila. Jimmy is going to crush through the food when he tries this in a few days - no doubt about that. But he won't be eligible to complete both parts of the challenge. Too bad.

A full gallery of photos can be seen here. Thanks, T-bonz!