Areala Asks: The Food Challenge! (20160521)

[Areala]

Next to sports and video games, it seems nothing brings out a person's competitive side like food. Whether it's a race to stuff more things into your face than the slob besides you, a personal challenge to consume an utterly ridiculous amount of something in a certain time period, or a Thanksgiving dinner that isn't over until you've eaten your age in return trips to the buffet line, there's something chest-thumpingly primal about showing one's ability to out-eat everyone else.

So this week, Areala wants to know if you've ever participated (willingly or not) in any sort of food challenge. Have you ever looked at some huge portion of food served at a restaurant and thought, "I'm hungry enough that I could devour that and still have room for dessert!"? Have you been banned from a Golden Corral, a Cici's Pizza, or a Chinese buffet because the manager determined you were on the verge of bankrupting them? Have you ever eaten so much you had no choice but to hurl it all up later because the alternative of it all passing through the other end was too horrifying to contemplate?

What was the largest thing you ever ate, and what enticed you to try? If you've never participated in a food challenge, why not, and is there anything they could offer by way of cuisine that would get you to interested in giving it a shot?

Cleanse your palette and vent your spleen. Boast of your exploits. Challenge your fellow forum-dwellers. Who really CAN eat the most Twinkies around here, anyway?

You've got a week to leave your mark on the world of culinary over-indulgence. Tell us your best food-related tale of mirth and woe. But do it by 11pm EST on May 28th, before we lock the topic and ask another question!

*huggles*
Areala

[kitsunebi]

Fie upon the glorification of overeating like it's something to be proud of.

That said...

None of you can hold a candle to the greatness of this man's attempt to eat a Whopper with 1050 strips of bacon. Never has utter failure been so much win.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/04/19/we-order-whopper-with-1050-bacon-strips-struggle-to-level-comically-huge-burger/

As for food challenges that aren't disgusting affirmations of stereotypical American gluttony, I submit an alternate challenge. What weird/gross (in your culture, anyway) food have you consumed without yakking?

My top five:

1. Shirouo: small transparent fish eaten while alive mainly for the sensation of them jumping around in your mouth (they put them in a slightly vinegared solution to agitate them so they're especially lively on the way down): 踊り食い - odorigui - dancing while being eaten.

2. Shirako - creamy in texture, the sperm sacs (and seminal fluid) of codfish

3. Ika (squid) no shiokara: bits of squid in a paste of its own fermented viscera

4. Beondegi - traditional Korean snack of boiled silkworm larvae

5. Horumon - I don't even know... It's grilled offal (and awful, HA.) What exact types of offal I've eaten over the years I'm not sure. I never ask. It's all horumon to me, but there are entire restaurants devoted to it (which I avoid when I can.) Here are the different types you might find on the menu:

esophagus
heart
pulmonary artery
uterus
mammary
diaphragm
pancreas
intestine
rectum

[miketheratguy]

^ Yeah. I think it's best that I not spend too much time in this thread.

[marktrade]

I feel like I should have some claim to fame in this regard but nothing comes to mind right now except for those times in the freshman dorm cafeteria when I would put random condiments and food items into drinks and then dare my friends to drink it only to have them reply, "you first," and drink it I did. I was very, very bored in college.

[kitsunebi]

I feel like I should have some claim to fame in this regard but nothing comes to mind right now except for those times in the freshman dorm cafeteria when I would put random condiments and food items into drinks and then dare my friends to drink it only to have them reply, "you first," and drink it I did. I was very, very bored in college.

Reminds me of the opening scene in this film.

[MisterXiado]

I really only eat to keep from falling down. Normally a glass of water and a heaping helping of sleep works well enough.

[te72]

Fine, I'll be THAT guy...

So, pretty much all my life, I've been a skinny little twit. I think at my heaviest, when I was eating a box of donuts every week and drinking anywhere from 40-60 ounces of soda or other sugar drinks, I was around 138 lbs. Granted, I'm around 5'7", maybe 5'8", depending on the gravity of the room haha. Yeah... I think I have a tape worm or something.

When I was younger, as in late high school, early 20's, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat a box of mac & cheese (something like 1100, 1200 calories), before work. I'd have a foot long sammich from Blimpies (normally, Blimpies is sub par, at best, as far as sandwiches go, but this particular location was fantastic and the owner was a fan of my frequent visits) for lunch, loaded with double the meat, double cheese, and enough veggies and condiments to start a small garden... Dinner, I would usually hit up Jack in the Box for a couple jumbo jacks or an ultimate cheeseburger, since we're talking late late night by this point. Typically, this would be washed down with a liter or two of mountain dew...

Like I say, that wasn't uncommon, and I probably consumed 3000 or so calories per day. However, I was always on my feet at work, and most days I would spend a couple hours skateboarding with my younger brother, so I was fairly active.

Anymore, I try to avoid overeating. Tends to just make you lethargic at best. At worst? Ugh... no thanks. I've since become a drinker of mostly water, with the occasional (as in, maybe one or two a week at most) soda or sweet tea, and I've really expanded the palate toward more healthy food when I can. Still staying fairly active though, that's the important part...

As for gross foods, about the only thing that comes to mind is the hot chocolate ramen experiment. If you're hungry, eat ramen. If you're thirsty and cold with a sweet tooth, drink hot chocolate. Do not, under any circumstances, fall under the impression that noodles and chocolate are a good combination.

[Areala]

If you're hungry, eat ramen. If you're thirsty and cold with a sweet tooth, drink hot chocolate. Do not, under any circumstances, fall under the impression that noodles and chocolate are a good combination.

OMG, I'm dying over here...!

*huggles*

Areala

[kitsunebi]

As for gross foods, about the only thing that comes to mind is the hot chocolate ramen experiment. If you're hungry, eat ramen. If you're thirsty and cold with a sweet tooth, drink hot chocolate. Do not, under any circumstances, fall under the impression that noodles and chocolate are a good combination.

Not exactly the same, but here's the restaurant-quality version of your poor-college-student experiment.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/01/28/chocolate-ramen-not-only-will-we-try-that-well-be-first-in-line-%E3%80%90taste-test%E3%80%91/

[te72]

OMG, I'm dying over here...!

*huggles*

Areala

Glad you enjoyed it. Can't say as though I did haha!

Not exactly the same, but here's the restaurant-quality version of your poor-college-student experiment.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/01/28/chocolate-ramen-not-only-will-we-try-that-well-be-first-in-line-%E3%80%90taste-test%E3%80%91/

Yeah, Maruchan and Swiss Miss isn't exactly something off a menu. Their version actually looks pretty tasty. Reminds me a bit of a dish I had at a mexican restaurant a few months back, which had a chocolate infused sauce drizzled onto grilled chicken. Can't recall the name of the dish, unfortunately.

Funny enough, my ebay name, started about a year before this culinary delight of an experiment, is "poorcollegestudentsroommate"

[E-Day]

There have been the odd evenings once in a blue moon where it feels like my stomach is a bottomless pit. No matter how much I ate, I was not full. Apart from buffets, I haven't really ever tried to see how much of something I could eat except once. Back in 2002 when McDonald's still did Hamburger Wednesdays where you could get a hamburger for 69 cents (Canadian), I wanted to see if I could eat 13 of them for lunch. It took me two hours, but I did it. My stomach hurt afterwards, but they were tasty. I have not done anything of that sort since, and probably won't in the future as I have been monitoring everything I eat since January with good success. But if they ever bring back Hamburger Wednesdays....