WonderPho Pho Eating Challenge

This past Saturday Peter, Gabe, Fiona and I went down to the Beaches to try and catch some of the Beaches International Jazz Festival. Unfortunately we were a bit too early. Queen Street was still open to traffic and none of the musicians were set up.

So we decided to grab a bite. I suggested Sunset Grill since we were parked nearby. We pretty much had the same thing - sausages and three eggs served with home fries and thick toast. Though Peter substituted bacon instead of sausage.

Afterwards we walked around a bit. Partly on Queen, partly along the boardwalk by the lake. Still we hard no music.

We had to leave by around 5:00 because we were going to meet Keith up at WonderPho at 6:00. He had entered himself in the Pho eating contest there.

The contest began the day before. The challenge was to eat a huge bowl of Pho containing 100 metres of noodles (1½ pounds), ½ pound veal brisket, ½ pound sliced rib eye, 120 oz (3.55 litres) of soup. It's garnished with a mountainous pile of bean sprouts, red onions, basil and cilantro. Time limit to finish: 15 minutes.

If you're able to finish the whole bowl (soup included) within the allotted time you're awarded a T-shirt, a photo on the wall of the restaurant and given bragging rights amongst your friends. If you don't finish in time you have to pay $38 for the bowl of noodles. Either way you end up with a massive stomach ache.

Our group got there early so we went over to the Korean supermarket Galleria to kill some time. When we returned to the restaurant Keith and Justin were standing out front. We went in at around 6:00.

When we got inside we saw a couple of young fellows who had just finished their attempt at eating the super-sized bowl. One fellow did it, his friend failed. Both were royally hurting.

The young guy who finished the bowl did it in only 10 minutes. Very impressive. The manager said that seven others, if I remember correctly, had already failed up until that point.

After they brought the bowl out Keith was allowed to let it sit for 8 minutes to cool off a bit. Then he dug in...

Of course things started off all right. For the first 10 minutes or so he was steadily plugging away. Keith downed most of the meat and the noodles, but now he was starting to feel the pain.

Once he reached that point it only got worse. One... two... three minutes passed with little more being eaten. It was about that time everyone realized it wasn't meant to be.

In the end he had about half a bowl of soup left with some noodles and other odds and ends. It was a valiant effort that's for sure.

Keith asked one of the waitresses how large the super bowl was compared to a regular large. She said it was like eating 3-4 large bowls. That's just plain crazy.

Subway Hanging Contest

I was riding the subway home from church one Sunday not long ago. I was on my way to meet a couple of my condo floor mates (from the two units beside me) for lunch and was running a bit late.

I got on the southbound subway at St. Patrick station intending to take it around the loop at Union Station and back up to Eglinton, my stop.

Since I was short on time I wanted to try to get to the subway car nearest to the front of the train. That way when I arrived at Eglinton Station I could immediately go up the stairs and run over to my condo (where I was supposed to meet my friends in the lobby).

Unfortunately I only made it to car number 3 (from the front) when the train arrived in the station. So that's where I hopped in. I knew the train would stop a bit longer at Union Station and planned to move up one car there.

When we arrived at Union Station I quickly changed cars (before the doors closed and would end up stranding me until the next train arrived).

I found a seat opposite these four 20-something-year-old girls, two of which were getting ready to have a "Hanging Contest". Basically they were waiting for the train to start moving then they would see who could last longest hanging from the ceiling bar.

All four of them moved up the car a bit to a less crowded spot because they thought they might inadvertently kick someone while they were hanging there.

One girl who was sitting brought her smartphone out and her friend said, she'd better not be videotaping them. The smartphone girl said she was just taking pictures. She then turned to me and said I should join in their contest.

At first I resisted, saying I'd just watch. But, then I thought, why not, and opted to join in.

It was pretty funny. The subway car wasn't that full, but I'm sure the passengers there probably thought we were crazy. We were laughing our heads off all the way up towards King Station.

The girl on the far right of the photo dropped first. It was harder than she anticipated. The girl in the middle and I lasted until one of the other girls who was sitting figured, enough was enough, and tried to tickled us so we'd let go.

Silly fun.