First a little background. There is this Vietnamese place in San Francisco that hosts what is known as the "Pho Challenge". The idea is that if you can eat a bowl consisting of two pounds of noodles and two pounds of meat in an hour. Then you get a prize. In this case, the prize is the bowl (trophy), a picture hung on a wall, and you don't have to pay for the meal ($22 value). The catch is... well the catch is the entire challenge itself since only 2% of the people who take it actually finishes it. Basically, it's a sucker bet created by the restaurant to rip off customers dumb enough to take the challenge.
Let me introduce you to my friend Sammy.
If there was one person that could pull the challenge off, it would be Sammy. When we goto Sweet Tomatoes he drinks like 15 bowls of soup. One year, we were in Vegas and we challenged him to eat 20 bread rolls for $20... and he did it. When we goto buffets, he regularly eats double digit plates of food.... I'm not exactly sure how he got started with the Pho Challenge, but last week, I got an email saying he was gonna do the challenge. He even documented how he was preparing for "the biggest challenge" of his life.
Evidently, people has died doing this contest, since they make you sign some kind of waiver before you can do it. Hence the will and testament.... So how did this debacle go down? Well, let's take it from the very beginning. Can he do it? Can he do it?
60:00 - And he begins. Two pounds of meat and two pounds of noodles in a gigantic bowl. The waiter counts him down and starts the timer.
50:00 - Ten minutes in, Sammy starts strong. Slurping down the noodles. Chatty. At this point, i gave him a 40% chance of finishing, which is higher than the 30% change I gave him twenty minutes ago.
40:00 - The first hints of trouble. The shirt has come off. And he's sweating since the broth is hot. (We were trying to convince him to do the challenge shirtless... Now that would have been hilarious). The biggest problem thus far? Hand cramp from using chopsticks (yes, it's true) and dying of thirst because they don't allow you to drink water during the challenge.
As a side note, I finished my own personal pho challenge around the same time. Notice how big his bowl is compared to mine.
30:00 - At the halfway point... Sammy is actually approximately halfway through the bowl of noodles!! He might actually do it! But he's noticeably struggling. Noticeably... this does not bode well. Look how stressed and tired he looks in this picture.
20:00 - Ooh oh. We are on the brink of meltdown here. Like a fine machine pushed to the brink, Sammy is beginning to breakdown. The hand is sore, the throat is parched, the stomach is full, the ego is bruised. The noodle consumption rate is down at least 75% from the beginning. Failure is pretty much imminent at this point. Everyone is shouting encouragement at him right now (except Wade, who is just laughing deliriously). Rachel is massaging Sammy's esophagus to get the food to go down faster.
10:00 - It's like the eight inning the we are down ten runs right now. It's not looking good folks. However, on the bright side, Sammy is going crazy! It's like he's intoxicated. He's saying all sorts of weird crap right now and forgetting what year we are in. It's quite a musing and a bit scary. I put it at a 75% change he might throw up before the hour is up. But at the very least, it's very entertaining. Look at this picture, he's giving a diatribe about something.
5:00 - Folks. I bring you the last five minutes of this contest via video. Can he do it??
Note - I have to admit, this video is pretty hilarious (and clean). My friends are pretty funny. And Sammy concession speech is epic (concession speech starts at 3:30 if you want to fastforward. But if you fastforward, you'll miss epics such as...
'Come on Sammy, you got to believe. We believe. Like the Warriors' (Winnie)
'You got to respect the PHO. You did not respect the Pho!' (Hal, on why Sammy failed).
'Hahahahahahahaahahahahahaah' (Wade)
00:00 - Complete and utter failure.
Aftermath - Sammy has completed about 75% of the bowl of pho. But almost is not enough. He tried hard.. But losers try hard. Winners go home and ... well, you know. I have to give props to SZ for trying and providing an hours worth entertainment. And it's not trying if you fail, it's failing if you don't try. When we fall down, we get back up again. Losing inspires us to greater things. We will live to fight another day.... and at the very least, Rachel still loves him. I think.
He also got a free t-shirt from this.
Pho. Until next time. Until next time.
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Good effort Sammy!
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