Man vs. Food

Have you heard of the show Man vs. Food? Its featured on the Travel Channel, and this crazy guy goes across country searching for insane food challenges and does them. There are 3 here in San Antonio, and last week we did 2 of them.

Last week Kyle's little brother, Tyler, and 4 of his college friends road-tripped it down to TX. They visited a brother at an army base, spent a few days on the beach at South Padre, and spent a few days in San Antonio with us. What did they want to do or see in San Antonio? Man vs. Food Challenges.

The first one is called the 4 Horseman Burger. It is at a little run-down place on the West Side of town called Chunky's Burgers. The 4 Horseman is a regular old 1/2 pound hamburger; not only does it have the regular lettuce, tomotoe, etc; it has grilled jalepenos, serrano peppers, ghost chilli peppers, and habeneros. (Not familiar with those peppers? All of them are hotter than a jalepeno.)

About 500 people have finished the burger out of roughly 5,000 people that have tried.

So we got to Chunky's and one of Tyler's friends tries the burger. I sit the farthest away possible and make Kyle take the pictures because I know nothing good can come of this. I can just think of what those peppers would do to the inside of you, and I was NOT looking forward to finding out. Anyway. He ate about 4-5 bites and had to stop because his face was on fire, his lips were numb, and well, it was HOT. They proceeded to give him a glass of milk to cool off his mouth, which didn't help much. Let's just say he needed the bucket they brought out after that. (I was still on the other end of the table, in my own world, trying not to pay attention to what was happening.)

The other boys that were with couldn't be out-done by their friends, so they all tried a pepper that was left on the burger (I think I said the word 'idiot' about 8 times during supper). They were all hurting, even after just a lick of a pepper. I refused, as did Kyle (he had a softball game).

So, here they are. The boys, and the one behind the sign is the one that tried the burger.

The next night we did a different Man vs. Food challenge. This one I liked better. It was featured at Big Lou's Pizza. They make and serve a 42" pizza. You read right...a 42". This one isn't as "rare," Big Lou's makes multiple a night, especially on Friday nights (when we went). It took about 45 minutes for it to make, but it was a fun atmosphere, with the biggest tables I have ever seen in a pizza place. In total, we had 12 people attack the pizza and we ate it all. That is right. All 42" gone. I couldn't even finish one slice. It helped that we had 6 college-age growing boys at the table to help us out. Some rolled the slice like a burrito. Some folded it in half like NY style...I tried to cut it, and failed. Anyway you ate it, it was a delicious pizza!

It was fun having the boys down, and even better have them find these places and us being able to take them. Most of the San Antonio residents have never even heard of these things, so I am glad I got to do them!

My suggestion: skip the burger, head for the pizza and the other food challenge we didn't do - the 3 pound cinamon roll (and live at the gym after that) ;)