Last weekend was the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival on Lansdowne St., over by Fenway. It was insane. Our friends w and j came down from Portland, 'cause they're foodies like us. Here they are on the T:
We got there just after 11, when it was supposed to start. Just before the entrance, there was this guy handing out flyers. In a manner unusual to me, I took it. Guess who was on it? Takeru Kobayashi! Did you see his segment on MTV's true life? Compelling stuff. I wanted to see him in person. Here's another article, 'cause he's fascinating.
But once we got in, there was a lot of food. There were a lot of people, but you basically got your food at one booth, then ate it while in line for the next booth. I'd show you pictures of us eating, but we were too busy eating. We ate our way down the street, working through chowder, pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, taffy, rasta pasta, fudge, subs, ice cream cupcakes! and started to get full just as we got to this:
Mmm, soda, being drafted out of the side of a van. Cool. We decided that Eli's must be affiliated with Shipyard, 'cause all the taps said Shipyard on them. It was still cool, and the soda was pretty good too. At this point it was probably almost noon, and we were getting full. So, we headed in to see Kobayashi! First we had to watch five sad folks try to break the world record for grilled cheese eating, which was 47 sandwiches in 10 minutes. The winner would've gotten $100,000 if they'd broken the record. Except, that wasn't going to happen. One guy stopped eating after about a sandwich and a half, and I think the winner ate 11. They gave him $500. They dragged it out a bit setting up, and then... Kobayashi time!
Note how small and adorable he is. They had him there to set the world record in competitive eating for the most lobster rolls in 10 minutes. They had Jasper White make 'em and everything, and they were big lobster rolls. If anyone doesn't know what a lobster roll is, it's basically lobster salad with big chunks of real lobster and mayo in a large, soft roll. They make little finger roll ones too, but these were the big ones. They had a team of four amateur eaters against Kobayashi, and if they beat him combined, they would split the cash prize, which was $10,000. I don't think anyone thought those four poor souls stood a chance, but it was cool watching the whole thing. Here's Kobayashi-san setting up, placing his water properly on his stand (he tested the temperature too).
Here he is eating with great speed and concentration. He totally did the Kobayashi shake too!
Kobayashi-san remained focused despite the distractions of the crowd and an annoying dancing lobster:
And, of course, was in the end victorious. Here he is showing his distended stomach off for just a second. Some shmuck got in the way of my shot but you can sort of see it:
So do you want to know how many lobster rolls he ate in 10 minutes? FORTY-ONE. Ugh. I actually like lobster rolls, despite generally disliking mayonnaise, but right now the thought of lobster rolls is kind of unbearable. He looked totally unfazed at the end too, smiling for pictures and signing autographs. (Want more pics? there are a ridiculous number of pictures of the whole event here.) And yes, I so got his autograph, even though I've NEVER asked anyone for their autograph before, EVER. Not in 28 years.
Anyway, when we got outside, well, it was REALLY crowded. Uncomfortably crowded. So we got the rest of what we had missed on the way in, and headed out. We weren't ready for much walking yet, so we went across the street to Beerworks. Obviously what we needed after several hours of eating unhealthy food was beer, and...
fried pickles and sweet potato fries. I had a salad too, that contained something that looked suspiciously like spinach, but I'm pretty sure by now that I don't have E.coli. PS...
