Friday, September 4, 2009


The Ultimate Food Challenge (HWK 1)


Food. This word stirs up millions of different responses to people all around the world. It can cause one to have flashbacks or reminiscing thoughts of a time or event where food was a part of or it can cause an immediate mouth watering reaction. Either way, food is almost always thought up of in a happy manner. It brings comfort for a person who may be in need, it brings a sense of satisfaction for a person in hunger or even just a person who has that certain craving for something, it brings people together for celebrations, such as birthdays or holidays and for the not-so-celebrations like funerals. No matter what the situation or event may be, food always has a rightful place. No wrong can come from it for it is the true happiness in this world.

Succumbing to the power of food is simply inevitable. This is especially true for me. I stumbled across a saying a few years ago and I immediately felt that it completely described me and my love for food. It said, “The key to my heart is through my stomach.” Oh how this couldn’t be any truer for me than if it had my name in it! I love food more than what is considered normal by most people. Not many people realize when they first meet me how much I can eat. Most think that just because I’m fit that I must not eat that much. Oh how I relish those people’s facial expressions when that moment comes where they see how much I can truly pack it in when it comes to food. It’s priceless!

My sister partakes in my same obsession about food if not even more. I’m a little disappointed to say that she’s thinner than I am and can pack food in ten times more than I ever can. Even I am amazed sometimes as I watch her tare through a monster thickburger from Hardees with the burger patty far too large for its bun counterpart. And yet, she motivates me to gulf down my thickburger right alongside her. She and I share a passion for challenging ourselves when it comes to food. We like to test our limits and discover just how much we can eat in one sitting. This being said, when the “Big Pie in the Sky” pizzeria advertised for their “carnivore challenge,” we knew it was the ultimate test for us.

So here’s the challenge: it’s a 48 inch pizza that has 11 pounds of meaty toppings as well as other various toppings on it. Two people have within one hour to finish the pizza without throwing up or leaving the table’s immediate vicinity. A team receives 50 dollars for attempting this carnivorous dream’s challenge and IF the team actually does manage to scarf down the pizza and keep it down, then they receive 250 dollars cash. On top of the monetary rewards, the winner also earns the bragging rights to officially say that they have come, they have seen, and they have conquered the carnivore challenge. Needless to say, my sister and I felt obliged to at least try to eat this human marvel they call a pizza.

We prepared for the challenge a week in advance. We would sit there in sessions and try to see how much we could eat in one setting. We timed ourselves and practiced pacing because we were used to just literally inhaling food, not really chewing, but we knew that would not get us far in the carnivore challenge. We stretched our stomachs as far as we stretched our imaginations that we could, in fact, finish the pizza under the imposed rules. Finally, our time came.

It was a Monday, around 3:30 in the afternoon. I called in advanced and scheduled a time for my sister and me to take on the challenge. When we arrived at the pizzeria, the workers thought we were joking about the challenge. They were in complete disbelief that two thin girls who looked like they could barely eat more than a slice or two were standing in front of them asking for the colossal of all pizzas, for the pizza that other pizzas quiver in its wake. After a few minutes of convincing, two workers carried the pizza out to the table, placed it, and set the time. So the countdown began.

My sister and I worked our way slowly but surely through the pizza, pacing ourselves just as we practiced. After the first twenty minutes passed, we were making decent progress. I grasped on to the idea that we could finish the pizza! I could see the other pizza customers out of the corner of my eyes, gawking at us at what we were attempting. I couldn’t really blame them because I was doing the same thing! I focused my energy and thoughts into just finishing without puking. We were doing pretty well and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then that light went out.

After about 40 minutes of intense, focused eating, our progress on the pizza slowed down drastically. That energy and motivation that existed in the beginning of our feat just no longer remained. All I could think about at this point was just passing out on the floor! Our one hour to finish the pizza came to an end, and sadly, my sister and I did not finish the pizza...

Even though we didn’t finish it completely, we did eat more than about 60 percent of the pizza which was an accomplishment in itself! I’m proud of the progress my sister and I made on the pizza that day. The experience was definitely an interesting one and one that I’m sure to never forget. After all, it’s pretty hard to forget about a pizza that’s roughly about the size of a house window. Who knows? Perhaps my sister and I will go back to that challenge after some time, practice, and my stomach returning to its normal feeling. Until then, we prepare for our next challenge of taking on the triple king burger from “fatburger.” That one, I can handle.

Image: photographer unknown. "toto's pizzeria." Photograph. 2008. From FoodNut. http://www.foodnut.com/i/totos-pizza/totos-pizza-margherita.jpg

No comments:

Post a Comment