Mongo Who?

This is from the Nathan's Famous site. Listing of winners from the 2009 qualifiers. Hey Mongo, you lied when you say you won in Denver, I guess!

http://www.nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/getpage.php?pgid=28

New Smashburger in Vegas

A Smashburger opened in mid-March in Las Vegas! We just happened to be there a few days after it opened...

The burger that's only available in Las Vegas: the Sin City burger. Fried egg, applewood smoked bacon, American cheese, grilled onions, haystack onions, egg bun, and smash sauce.

We ordered the sweet potato smashfries. Tossed with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic. Usually they are very good. Here they were oily and limp. Yuck!

My Sin City burger. The egg was fried, but too long for me - too bad the yolk was not runny.

If you live anywhere near a Smashburger and have not gone to eat there yet, GO! There's no nutrition info available about their food - so it's probably safe to say it is so very bad for you - but go and eat there anyway!

Wall of Fame at Johnny McGuire's

Here is a photo of the Wall of Fame at Johnny McGuire's Deli in Las Vegas:


I had not noticed this before, but the plaque is titled their "Wall of Shame". Interesting. I guess eating a 24" sub sandwich could be called shameful.

My time of 28:22.27 is posted as 28:223:27. Fine.

"Jason" in 14:40?? "Tom" in 10:42?!? Yeah they must have said 'hold the meat' and 'hold the vegetables'!!!

Pink's Video

Here's a link to a clip of video shot by T-bonz of me taking a couple of bites of the Polish hot dog with chili, mustard and onions at Pink's Hot Dogs in the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Pink's in Las Vegas

While in Las Vegas to attempt the B3 burrito challenge at the Sahara, one must-go was to Pink's Hot Dogs in the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino.


There were a few crazy concoctions but I decided to go with a traditional one:

Polish with chili, mustard and onions

Planning my bite

OK. Go. And the side of fries.

Open mouth. Insert hot dog.

1/2-dog bite

Cleaning up the fallen

Pre-lick

All gone.

Overall, not that impressed. A tasty enough Polish chili dog, but nothing really phenomenal about it that you can't get anywhere else. Meh.

Another TOP WOF

This is a photo of the Apollo Challenge Wall of Fame at the Highlands Ranch location of Taste of Philly. No names or finish times on the wall photos - anyone know who or the times? This location has the most finishers of the Apollo Cheesesteak Challenge. Will there be another finisher soon?

Vega$ - One More Day!

We only have one more day to win big in Las Vegas, baby! We are going off-Strip tomorrow... Oh, and that B3 burrito challenge at the Sahara? It went much better than last time in December - but I am now 0-2 against it.

Burrito Day!

It's on. At the airport, getting psyched for the B3 at the Sahara in Vegas!

Peanut Butter Burger Take 3

My third attack on the Peanut Butter Burger Challenge at the Rock Rest Lodge in Golden, Colorado.

First time, I finished in 29:41. That was the best time until I ate it again in 25:32 a couple of weeks later. Then Vandam does it in 23:56. Now it's my turn again:

That looks good! Lots of bacon this time.

Getting set



I almost spooged the iPod timer

Patties were down in under 10 minutes





The chef. Great burger!





Breathe!

Focused





Patties down, now on to those damn curly fries

Sticky situation



Curly fries.

Getting there!

Close!

A few more squishfuls

I went patties, then burger toppings, then fries, and finally the bun. Mayo on the bun was pretty thick!

Mommye's burger.

T-bonz had the smoked chicken dinner. YUM!

Done. Wiping up.

All done. #3.

18:40!

See, 18:40!

Finished off with a Dairy Queen cone

So 18:40. It was very delicious, maybe the most delicious of my three eats. The patties were awesome, and the bacon was unbelievable! I could get used to this thing!

T-bonz took some great shots given the lighting situation inside the Lodge. Hopefully there will be some eats on the patio as the warmer months ensue.

Vegas, Baby!

You might remember that me and T-bonz were in Las Vegas last December. Along with other things I was taking on 3 eating challenges in 3 days. I knocked off challenge #1, but the other two did not go that well.

The B3 burrito at the Nascar Cafe in the Sahara ended particularly badly.

On Friday we are going to Vegas again, and I am doing the burrito again. It's going down at 6pm. If you're there, come by to just watch or join in.

Hopefully El Toro will show up so I can give him a gastronomic beat down.

Nederland Video

A bit over a week ago I went up to Nederland to be in the rocky mountain oyster eating contest which was part of the 9th annual Frozen Dead Guy Days. Here is some video. I won my qualifying heat, and managed 2nd overall. The lighting in the pub was challenging for photos and videos, but T-bonz got some great shots and great video, too.

TOP Wall

Jimmy, Austin, Me


Here is a photo of the Wall of Fame at the Taste of Philly store in Lakewood. This store is one of the 3 Taste of Philly stores that offer the Apollo Cheesesteak Challenge. There are 3 people:

Jimmy Mares, 10:42
Me, 14:45
Austin Trujillo, 53 minutes.

Read and see more from my attempt.

Watch the video from my attempt.

Video from Taste of Philly

A week ago I went back to Taste of Philly to take the Apollo Cheesesteak Challenge again to improve my time from my first attempt at this challenge. I did improve my time by 1/3. The cheesesteak challenge is 44 ounces of meat, 18 ounces of white American cheese, and 8 ounces of onions all on a 20" Amoroso roll. Check out the video:



The video is a minute or so at the beginning of the eat, and a couple of minutes at the end of the eat. I had a great pace for the first half or so and then slowed some. I finished in 14:45.

Here is a link to a write up.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Yesterday it was off to Nederland. Every year they celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Days. Long story short there is a guy in Nederland who has his dead grandfather in a shed behind his house. He is kept nice and cold via dry ice - how nice - in hopes that he can be re-animated one day. Me, T-bonz, and Mommye went not for the dead guy but for the rocky mountain oyster eating contest.

Last year at the rocky mountain oyster contest I ended up 2nd. The RMOs were baked last year. Scary. In 2009, there were two qualifying heats and the top 2 from each heat went on to the final round. I was 2nd in my heat, and 2nd in the finals.


But that was last year. This year, I really was hoping the RMOs would not be baked but rather fried. Baked are faster than fried, yes, but you tasted WAY too much, uh, you know. When I got there, I found out they would be fried! And, the format of the contest would be 3 qualifying heats, and the winner of each heat would go to the finals. As last year too, not the ideal format for me because first-to-finish comes down to swallowing size more than anything and that's not my strength.

In the qualifying heats each competitor had a plate with 3/4 pounds of RMOs fried in strips. I was in the 1st heat with a normal guy, plus a BIG guy, and a guy who had won a couple of these before. I got a spot at the end of the table so I could watch them as they ate and react accordingly. I do not know how long I took to finish - it seemed like forever - but I got a good start and stayed narrowly ahead and won the heat by edging out the previous winner. The big guy was not even close. The RMOs were very chewy and the breading was pretty thick. I had to get down a lot of water to choke them down.


The big guy and the previous winner

Heat #1


Heat #2. A dunking Asian Sensation. Some dude who broke the RMOs into small bits. Neither of them won. The winner was a guy, who like me, just ate and chased with water to swallow them down.

In heat #3 there were three women and three other guys. The women did well, but the winner was a guy who could pretty much put one in, chew a couple of times, and swallow it down. He didn't really have to hit the liquid. Uh oh.

Goatee guy won heat #3

Heat #3


About 20 minutes after my heat, the three winners of each heat took the stage. For the final round we each got a plate of 1/2 pound. On go, the winner of heat #2 wasn't a factor. It was me and the heat #3 winner going testicle-to-testicle. I think he was toying with me. It had to be funny to see me furiously biting and watering and chipmunking and then him calmly putting the RMO in his mouth, chewing a couple of chews, and swallowing it down. Half of my final RMO was fatty, or gristly, or veiny, or something. We both finished our plates at the same time, but I had a bit stuffed in my cheeks so he cleared first and won.

But I don't feel too bad about it because the winner is in the Army. He recently got back from Nam. I mean, the other quagmire, Iraq. He served 2 consecutive tours. So while I've been picking dingleberries off my butt he's been making life and death decisions.

Before the finals

In the finals

Finals over



2nd place

I will upload some video too.

Thanks to T-bonz for getting some good photos and video despite the conditions. Inside the pub the lighting and the raucous crowd made for some tough photo-taking conditions.