think you can eat a dagwood in under 6 minutes?

mark "the human vacuum" lyle does. and he's going to prove it at 2:30pm this saturday, march 21st.

as a refresher, the dagwood is a monster of a sandwich, containing 2.5 lbs of deli meat and accompanied by a healthy portion of fries. but the real kicker is the bun. it's huge and it doesn't go down easy. you have 30 minutes to eat the whole thing, and if you prevail, you get your picture on the wall and a tshirt that reads "i defeated the dagwood".
when foodie friends from columbus underground decided to tackle the dagwood, only 7 out of 11 could meet the challenge, the best of them finishing in 12 minutes.
and while i have my doubts that this record can be beaten, if anyone can do it, that person is mark.
i'll be tweeting it, so tune in!

the ohio deli and restaurant
3444 south high street
columbus, ohio 43207

i heart competitive eating

i love competitive eating. it's a real spectacle. it's exciting and a little disgusting to watch. and it's fun for the whole family.
there's a feeling of empathy all spectators feel for professional eaters that doesn't exist in other competitive sports. i don't have any idea what it's like to get tackled, score a home run or slam dunk a basket ball. but everyone knows what it's like to eat too much, and witnessing people eat past the boundaries of sane and safe consumption is a horrific thing of beauty.

so when mark "the human vacuum" lyle (ranked 5th in the world according to AICE)announced he would be setting out on a pre-retirement "adventure in gluttony", i knew i had to watch.

as a warm up to defeating such behemoths such as the dagwood and the thurmonator, this weekend mark entered in an all you can eat coney contest put on by the dublin skyline chili.

the contest:
30 minutes
as many coneys as you can eat
no vomiting
the winner gets free skyline for a year (52 certificates for a 3-way & coney)
$20 entry fee goes to a local food pantry -way to go skyline!

mark came out swinging, polishing off 12 coneys in the first 14 minutes:
the crowd immediately began to buzz as people realized mark wasn't your average competitor:
one contestant was especially cute, and a fierce competitor to boot!:

about 20 minutes into the contest, it became apparent that mark would be the winner. he slowed down a bit and watched the runner up, who was stalled around coney number 10. mark was feeling good, speculating that he thought he could probably do 25 coneys if he needed to.
when it was all said and done, mark won by putting down 15 coneys. the runner up ate 11 coneys.

after being awarded the "free skyline for a year", he graciously gave it to the little girl who did such a great job of competing earlier.

i've got to say, this was a really fun event. the kind folks at skyline did a great job putting it on and raised $265 for a local food pantry. it was nice to meet mark and chat with him a bit. i'll be following up shortly to talk more about the IACE, mark and the details of his next conquest.

on a side note, i really spend much more time on twitter than blogger these days. i'm mostly tweeting about & twitpic'ing what i eat with other random thoughts thrown in. i've been (and will be) tweeting the food events i attend. so if you don't tweet, give it a try and check me out.

the dagwood challenge

edit 2.13.09: i'm bumping this post to the top because of the comment i received last night. if mark is willing to allow me to document his efforts, i'm happy to return from hiatus. there's nothing that fascinates/horrifies/turns me on, more than competitive eating.

the premise is simple: eat a sandwich in under 30 minutes and you get a t-shirt and your picture on the wall.
simple, unless the sandwich is this monster:
behold, the dagwood from the ohio deli and restaurant. consisting of a whopping two and a half pounds of meat, a huge bun and accompanied by a hearty pile of fries. jim from cmh gourmand met the challenge and blogged about it here. his feat of strength and endurance got the folks at columbus underground talking and soon an event was born.

shortly after the competition began, we asked the waitress who held the record for eating the dagwood and she brought us this picture. 6 minutes?!?!?
11 competitors began this challenge, only 7 finished. sufficed to say, this was an amazing spectacle.

after finishing his sandwich, the fries and a piece of pie, this guy got a bloody nose. you heard it here: the dagwood may cause internal bleeding. jim, sporting his third "i defeated the dagwood" shirt.

the victors.

the ohio deli and restaurant
3444 south high street
columbus, ohio 43207

gone fishing

other priorities in my life are competing for my time - and winning. so for now, i'm closing up shop. maybe inspiration will strike when the growing season starts.
until then,
h

rad dog meatless gourmet hotdogs

i love street food. and i love hot dogs. so when i heard about a new vegetarian hot dog vendor in town, i had to check it out.
rad dog veggie hot dogs doesn't disappoint, i think this is as good as vegetarian hot dogs get. a friend and i ate our dogs on a high street bench and thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace in the old lunch routine.
rad dog offers kraut, chili or peppers & onions for toppings in addition to the standard ketchup, mustard and relish. they also offer blue sky soda (made with real sugar!) and delicious vegan cookies from pattycake bakery. yummy, cheap, healthy and fun! rad dog moves around town, so check out his website to see where you can catch him.

sweet summer treats

often life gets too busy for me to visit my parents in western new york as often as i'd like. however, the fourth of july is one holiday i try never to miss. when i was growing up, christmas and the fourth of july were the two holidays our entire family got together. both holidays are filled with great food traditions and memories, but the fourth is my favorite for one reason - cherries. i have really fond memories of picking cherries with my mom and grandparents as a child, memories i've been lucky to recreate as an adult.

so this year when my parents and i loaded into the car and drove out into the country in search of u-pick cherries, the news that almost the entire sweet cherry crop had been destroyed by hail came as a big disappointment. but we were determined to pick something, so we headed out to find the next best crop that was in season - raspberries.
we found raspberries to pick and in one fun, sweaty and sticky hour, we picked about six pounds. we ate a good bit while picking and back at the house, about a pound was turned into raspberry sauce and eaten over ice cream and the rest went onto cookie sheets to be frozen and then stored in bags for enjoying later.
the cherries, strawberries (and corn, peas and tomatoes) were purchased at the farm stands we stopped at along the way to locate a farm that offered u-pick raspberries. - a tasty price we were happy to pay. this cute little robin's nest was right in the middle of a large raspberry bush!