Have you ever been tempted to throw yourself into a food challenge, like a hot dog eating competition or a spiciest dish contest?
Maybe you’ve watched the YouTube series Hot Ones and you’re seriously thinking about setting up your own friendly chicken wing eating contest that ups the Scoville Heat Unit with each and every piece.
There are so many incredible food challenges out there — most of them testing the limits of human will-power, stomach size, and, well, gag reflex. After the 15th hot dog, you’ve gotta want to puke, right? For some people, no. Somewhere out there are the reigning champions of restaurant food challenges — challenges we’d never take on lightly.
Want nine pounds of breakfast? Want to eat the hottest Indian food the planet has ever seen? For the record, we can’t really imagine anyone tackling a nine-pound breakfast challenge better than maybe Ron Swanson of Parks & Rec glory. As for the spiciest dish ever, be prepared to actually hallucinate.
Let’s get ready to learn more about all the wildest (and potentially life-threatening) food challenges the world over.
Challenge: The 11-Pound Pizza
Our stomachs already hurt.
Over at Big Pie in the Sky, located in Kennesaw, Georgia, an 11-pound pizza which takes up 30 inches across, has to be eaten in under one hour.
Two people can tackle the job, but they’ve got to pay $50 to enter. The winner takes $250.00….which somehow doesn’t seem like enough. Is that enough money to hire a plumber to unclog the toilet post-pizza?
Challenge: The 105-Pound Burger
At least you can split it?
Now, this just seems downright dangerous. How would a person fit this much burger into their body?
Well, the Clinton Station Diner allows teams of up to 10 people to tackle the behemoth burger, which stands 11.5 inches tall. If 10 people can eat 10 pounds of burger, they’ll get $5000 bucks. Now that seems worth it.
Challenge: The Eight-Scoop Sundae
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIgDMxoJ4f4"]At first, this doesn’t sound too challenging. But it is.
Over at The San Francisco Creamery Co., contestants eat eight scoops of ice cream — and they can pick their choice of ice cream flavoring.
But wait: It’s also got three massive bananas, eight toppings, nuts, cherries — the whole works. The winner takes free ice cream for a year, which is great — except that we’re concerned for the health of this person.
Challenge: The 80-Ounce Stromboli
That’s five pounds, in case you were wondering.
Challenge: The Bowling Ball-Sized Meatball
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U6i4vQaRW0"]It will only put you back $24.99.
Love Italian? Try eating a massive bowl of spaghetti and then chowing down on a meatball that is probably the size of your head — if not bigger!
Like any true Italian, you’ll probably want (or need) to have a siesta after you’ve conquered this massive meatsplosion at Mama Campisi’s. The winner takes a tee-shirt.
Challenge: The Five-Pound Meat ‘Bomb’
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS77b_DCU90"]Vegetarians and vegans, avert your eyes.
Over at Paddy Long’s in Chicago, adventurous eaters can challenge themselves to sausage, pork, and beef monstrosity which is wrapped in bacon. This meal serves a table of eight, but if you’re daring you can tackle it on your lonesome — in 45 minutes or less.
You get to put your picture on the ‘wall of fame’ if you win. Is that enough?
Challenge: The Behemoth English Breakfast
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ld4wDED6M"]Even the Brits can’t help but get in on food challenges.
We hope you love brunch because the KIDZ Challenge (named because the challenge requires you to eat a meal the size of a brand new baby) is giving you lots of it.
It’s an English breakfast on steroids, so expects 12 sausages, 12 bacon slices, six eggs, four puddings, four slices of bread and way, way more. It’s gotta be down in under an hour.
Challenge: Two Pounds Of Noodles
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eTBdYw6jrc"]You can walk it off on San Fran’s hills.
Have a craving for Pho (a Vietnamese soup dish made with noodles and thin slices of yummy meat)? Great — because The Pho Garden challenge was designed for you.
You’ll eat a bowl of Pho that contains two pounds of noodles and two more pounds of beef and tripe. You must drink ALL the broth, too. All in under an hour. Winners get their picture on the wall of glory.
Challenge: Five Pounds Of Hot Dogs
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTwvCAXZZ4o"]And they come fully loaded.
Can’t think of something better to do this weekend? Knock yourself out at the Knucklehead Hot Dog Diner in Roseville, California. You’ll have to down five quarter-pound hot dogs topped with pounds of chili, a pound of French fries, and then smothered in shredded cheese.
You have 20 minutes to eat it, and if you win, you’ll get a free meal. But you’ll probably want to save it for another day.
Challenge: Eat All The Italian Food Ever
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCDaansqJ4w"]This one’s a doozy.
Over at Mick & Angelo’s Eatery and Bar, the kitchen staff has a very intense challenge on offer: You’ll cram every Italian dish down your throat in under 90 minutes.
Think spaghetti, chicken parm, Italian soup, lasagna, garlic bread, and pretty much everything else. It’s about seven pounds of food. Winners take a t-shirt, a free meal, and a picture on the wall of fame. Buon apetito!
Challenge: A 72-Ounce Steak
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkcOLINfM5c"]Get your steak on Route 66.
For some context, most steaks we order are around six or eight ounces, but this jumbo steak at The Big Texan Steak Ranch comes with a bread roll, shrimp, potatoes and beans.
It’s basically everything that you could ever want at a backyard BBQ, except times a billion — and it’ll probably come close to killing you. But if you win, the meal’s on the house
Challenge: A 24-Inch Pancake
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_VxbUYHTc"]It comes with special toppings.
Instead of hitting Florida’s gorgeous beaches, maybe you’ll want to throw a 24-inch pancake (known as the Terminator) down your throat to win a free meal at Shelby’s Kitchen and Deli.
This pancake is topped with four eggs, six sausages, a pound and a half of bacon (WHAT), home fries, and toast. Unfortunately, it seems like this challenge might be done, as Food Network lists the Deli as closed. Here’s to hoping it reopens and we all get a chance to try this heart attack-inducing breakfast.
Challenge: The Spiciest 48-Ounce Soup
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5egxq-r_e44"]Bring tissues. You’re gonna need them.
Like a little fire? Sure ya do. If you’re ready to wreck your taste buds — and your sinuses — hop over to Nitally’s ThaiMex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Florida, where you’ll dine on 48 ounces of a soup (known as the Inferno) made from something called bhut jolokia, aka the infamous oh-so-spicy ghost chili. It’s also used in pepper spray so… yeah.
This is one of the hottest peppers on earth, so don’t rub your eyes. The winner gets a grand — but is it worth it?
Challenge: The Biggest Sandwich On Earth
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=320YjSAm2vM"]Many drunk college kids have tried and failed this food challenge.
Just looking at this 20,000 calorie craziness is enough to make anyone gag. But this food challenge asks someone to eat — in 15 minutes — the Big Fat Ugly — a mega monster made from two rolls, four cheeseburgers, gyro meat, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, mac-n-cheese, pizza bites, corndogs, and so, so much more.
Imagine all the drunk food on earth stuff into one sandwich. Wouldn’t eating this, like, cause a medical emergency? We wonder how many University of Illinois students have attempted this after a night out.
Challenge: The Spiciest Indian Food In The World
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRwvGFEmbXc"]Oddly enough, it’s in London.
At the upscale Indian restaurant Cinnamon Club in London, England, heat-loving masochists can take part in the Bombay Burner challenge, which is a lamb mince curry that has been known to make some people hallucinate.
It contains Carribean red peppers, chilies, habaneros, jalapeños, and so much more. You have to sign a waiver before embarking on the journey. Oh, and you have to sign a legal disclaimer to even taste it. As one writer explains, “There was nothing euphoric about my experience; it felt more like I was K-holing in a house fire.”
We’re sleepy, nauseous and grossed out just thinking about all these body-torturing challenges! Are there any challenges here that you’d accept?
