By Amanda Gegg
It’s one of life’s ever-present phenomena: man’s quest to eat crazy amounts of food in outrageously short spaces of time. Gone are the days of enjoying a leisurely meal without a care in the world; there are now more important things to think about like devouring obscene amounts of chilli when all your friends think you can’t.
London isn’t a stranger to the ‘Man Vs Food’ phenomenon – quite the opposite in fact – and we consequently felt the need to inform you of the latest homegrown challenges so you can attempt to become fully-fledged (perhaps slightly nauseous) food heroes yourselves.
1. ‘Triple Chilli Challenge’ (Meat Liquor Restaurants)
This challenge has been going for some time now but evidently hasn’t lost any of its appeal, not least because it appears that people love eating chilli. For this challenge all you have to do is demolish a jalapeño burger, jalapeño hot dog and jalapeño fries, all in the space of 10 minutes… No big deal, right?
2. ‘Crabby Patty Challenge’ (Red Dog Saloon, Hoxton Square and Soho)
Hot on the heels of their ‘Naga Viper hot wing challenge’, the Red Dog Saloon are now inviting guests to see how many patties they can cram in to a burger for the joy of not having to pay for it afterwards. FYI, the record so far is 12… And did we mention you only have 20 minutes to eat it all?
3. Florentine Ostrich Egg or Burger (Florentine Restaurant, Park Plaza Waterloo)
It’s not every day you get the chance to up the ante of your meal with an ostrich egg and we have to say this won’t be an experience you’ll forget in a hurry. This is also a chance for vegetarians to get in on the action with the egg taking centre stage on a Full English, with or without the meat. Hurry though, they won’t be in season for long.
4. ‘Dude Vs. Dough’ Pizza Challenge (Tank & Paddle – Heddon Street/Minster Court/Bishopsgate)
The pizza chefs at Tank & Paddle have very much hopped on the Food Challenge bandwagon with their yard long pizza challenge, which requires you to chow down the whole thing (plus a mac and cheese) within 15 minutes. If you do this you’ll be crowned the ‘Doughminator’, winning a £40 bar tab and a snazzy t-shirt. Worth it? We think so.
5. ‘Chicken Parm Pile Up’ (The Pride of Paddington, W2)
No stranger to ‘Man Vs Food’ events, Pride of Paddington have come up with an Aussie-inspired challenge which invites participants to see if they can polish off four layers of chicken parmigiana, complete with salad and chips, in 20 minutes. If you can manage this they’ll take it off the bill.