US Sized Portions Anyone?
March 26, 2008
By: thenhbushman
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Category: Food, Humor, Lifestyle, local cuisine
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Recently, Mark went to the US to take care of some business. While he was there, he blogged on the size of fountain drinks at a gas station on the way to Boston. Mark says:
I’ve been living abroad for a while, and it’s given me a slightly different view of stuff at home than I’d have if I’d stayed…. I’m used to the large size [drink] being 22oz or something like that. Even drinking the second biggest size drink I saw at the gas station left me feeling like I’d just put my pancreas through a strainer. I mean… who drinks half a gallon of soda in one serving? Seriously…
I talked about that article with my friend Mike back in New England and he told me about some giant sized portions at some local restaurants. Mike got some shots and the story behind these monster dishes for us. Are you ready for this?
This is the small chicken cutlet sub at King Cutlet in Salem, NH (a small restaurant chain). The price for this size is US$5.95 to $6.15 depending on how you order it.
This 15″ model is the large chicken cutlet sub at King Cutlet. The price is US$8.00. I think I’d need Mark’s 64 oz. drink to wash this down! Those are 2 full sized paper plates!
Now, onto a place in Lynn, MA, where Mike is from. This restaurant is called the Ha Lin and they serve the usual mysterious stuff that passes off as “Chinese food” in the USA. Weighing in at US$9.25, we have (from top left to right, and down), 2 chicken “teriyaki” (which is nothing like any teriyaki I’ve had in Japan or elsewhere outside of the US), 4 chicken “fingers” (a batter fried ball of grease with some boneless chicken at the center somewhere), a pile of nasty brown fried rice (which is how they recycle and sell old rice, as opposed to fresh fried rice with no artificial coloring), a serving of “General Gau’s Chicken” (a bastardization of honey chicken dish from China), and 4 “crab rangoons” (which are totally unheard of in Asia).
When I lived in Lynn, I never ate at the Ha Lin. Would you like to know the reason why?
Look carefully at the sign.
They can’t even spell “Chinese.”
Now, are you ready for something really huge?
How about something so big that:
- The side dish weighs 5 pounds?
- The restaurant gives you an hour to consume it?
- If you finish it, they will give you 100 bucks and name it after you?
Introducing, from Brighton, MA, the Eagle’s Deli Challenge!
You get a burger that is piled with 10 half-pound patties, and the sky-high stacking is held together by wooden teriyaki sticks. It includes 20 strips of bacon, 20 slices of cheese, and 5 pounds of fries.
The Eagle Deli Challenge is served to 1 person and it costs US$50. If that one person can eat everything in 1 hour, they will receive US$100 and the Eagle’s Deli will name the burger after you. Click here to download their take out menu (PDF) where you will find the Challenge.
Since its still called the “Eagle Deli Challenge” could it be that no one has been able to finish it all in 1 hour? We have no idea if anyone has ever ordered The Challenge but I would love to find out!
Thanks to our friend Mike from Lynn, MA for this excellent field report!
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March 26th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Those photos are absolutely ridiculous! This is one of the things I struggle with whenever I return home. I’ve gotten used to eating scaled down meals and I’m always shocked at how much food is consumed back home. It’s a fast food nation out of control.
Carrie’s last blog post..Bumble Me
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:24 am:
Carrie » my friend Mike knows many of those places and we’ve talked about them even before i moved to Taiwan. one place is the Derry Diner, where the small salad is gigantic. i don’t get it!
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March 26th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
That first one looks good, but the one on the bottom is just ridiculous. It’s enough for a whole bowling team.
Mark’s last blog post..The Taiwan Blog Feed Lives!
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:22 am:
Mark » yes, i agree. that would be a major waste of food, unless i shared it with someone else (or quite a few people as you point out). thanks.
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March 27th, 2008 at 12:25 am
At the bar I worked we had a 3-pound challenge (modest compared to the 10-pound challenge you wrote about!): it was a pound burger, a pound of fries, and a pound of coleslaw. Anyone who finished it got a t-shirt that said “I got pounded at Players’” (the name of the bar). I don’t think anyone actually won any of the shirts, we gave most of them away to our regulars. One person came close to finishing one, he still had about a half-pound of coleslaw remaining when he left to use the restroom and immediately threw up next to his bar stool the 2.5 lbs of food he had already began digesting.
Todd’s last blog post..A Photo a Day from Planet Earth
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:21 am:
Todd » thanks for that visual! i’ve never done one of those food challenges. something doesn’t seem right about them to me, but to each his own!
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March 27th, 2008 at 1:17 am
I’m pretty sure eating the last burger will kill you, just like that steak eating contest in that Simpson’s episode where Homer becomes a truck driver.
Sandy’s last blog post..A Caribbean Paradise: Turks & Caicos
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:19 am:
Sandy » i think you are right about that!
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March 27th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Where is this place, Todd? I’ve started running again and I can do it! The shirt will be mine!
Mark’s last blog post..The Taiwan Blog Feed Lives!
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thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:18 am:
Mark » Mark, you started this whole thing! you should go back to New England and take the Eagle’s Deli Challenge!
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March 27th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I’ve had the pleasure of having the top pic in this blog. Really good chicken cutlet subs at King Cutlet. I’ve split the large sub with a friend (it was either that or take half of it home with me).
MJ forgot to mention a place in Southern NH and Northern MA called “Sal’s Pizza”. Their plain cheese pizza is 19″ round and weighs in at 3 lbs. Their meat-lovers pizza is also 19″ round and weighs in at at whopping 8 lbs. If you want to order a “slice” of pizza… its 1/4 of their large pizza…. no matter what kind you get (and they charge 1/4 the price of a large pizza for a slice).
I don’t think I would EVER try the Eagle Deli Challenge. As for “The Simpson’s” reference made by Sandy… yeah Red Barclay died after eating the “Sir-Loin-a-lot” challenge (a 16 lb steak)… but in his defense… he had just finished eating a whole lamb
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 9:13 am:
mike01905 » thanks for the field research on this article.
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March 27th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
As for that 3lb challenge… if I liked colleslaw… that wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
The Eagle Deli has other “dishes” they aren’t “chalenges”) with a 4lb burger and 4 lbs of fries, 3lb buger and 3lbs of fries, and I think even a 2lb burger and 2lbs of fries.
Mmmmm… burger and fries… think this stuff is out of the question for breakfast
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 27th, 2008 8:41 pm:
mike01905 » after one has lived in Asia, it’s hard to get excited about any amount of fried potatoes and a bland meat patty slathered with mustard.
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March 27th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Mmm. That burger looks good.
I read an interesting article that noted that much of the supposed weight gain of the “average American” is mostly due to immigration from Latin American countries like Mexico where people on average are fatter. But the large portion sizes certainly don’t help.
It’s funny to me, because more and more Americans seem obsessed with diet and exercise. Everywhere you go, day and night, Americans are running, biking, walking.
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 28th, 2008 9:46 am:
Dwu » the burger does look good, but i’m not going to order it! interesting about the demographics of what makes up American is changing and influencing the statistics. i think the big problem is the bad medical information one gets in the US. for years doctors preached “low fat” and look what happened.
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March 28th, 2008 at 1:51 am
i was out in the midwest US a couple years ago and i definitely got my ass kicked pretty good by the huge portions of food served just about everywhere we went. i don’t think i was able to finish one meal during my whole trip there………. not even breakfast!
andres’s last blog post..random ramblings - new president, 2 years, 4 months and more
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 28th, 2008 9:45 am:
andres » in the US, food seems to be like alcohol is in Asia, where people push you to eat more and they look down on you if you can’t finish the giant proportions.
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March 28th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Those portions are perverse.
It’s no wonder people are so overweight.
Looks like a heart attack with a side order of diabetes.
owshawng’s last blog post..Spring is here!!
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 28th, 2008 9:43 am:
owshawng » well spoken!
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March 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Mark - the bar was at the Marriott in Ypsilanti, MI. I say was because it has since closed down to make more room for banquet space (even though it was pulling in more money than the hotel’s restaurant). To the best of my understanding, they remodeled and expanded the hotel’s lounge bar to make up for it, but I am pretty sure they dropped the 3lb. Challenge from the menu in an attempt to attract a different segment of the population (I think they didn’t want a repeat of the previous New Year’s Eve brawl or another stabbing over a pool table like years back).
Todd’s last blog post..A Photo a Day from Planet Earth
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thenhbushman
reply on March 29th, 2008 10:38 am:
Todd » geesh, why would they want to attract a different segment of the population? lol
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March 28th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
That burger is insane! The king size chicken cutlet like wise. If someone managed to eat the burger they would have indigestion for a year.
Brunty’s last blog post..Booking a holiday. Thailand.
[Reply to Comment]
thenhbushman
reply on March 29th, 2008 10:37 am:
Brunty » i wouldn’t get the burger unless i had a large group of people.
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March 30th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
The first thing we ate back in the US was Hamburgers for dinner. The next day, hamburgers and hot - dogs on fourth of July and Pizza. The third day we got back to my mother’s house and she asked us if we would like to eat Hamburgers or Pizza for lunch! I guess anything can get tiring if you eat it often enough.. (like noodles or rice) Still I’m looking forward to a big fat bacon cheeseburger when I get back..
Joe’s last blog post..Bloody Rice Cakes Rising
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March 31st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
i’ve seen guys who just arrived and craved a hamburger. sorry, i don’t get that!
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April 7th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The worst part is that the food isn’t really genuine. It’s loaded with fillers and additions. Science is used these days to make stuff made from cheaper ingedients to look like the real McCoy.
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