Tag: ann arbor

Epic Portions Attempts 30″ Pizza

Bella Italia began advertising a pizza challenge a few weeks ago which seemed crazy, but doable. The challenge required a team of two to eat a 30″ meat lovers pizza in under 60 minutes. If we could take it out, 200 big ones would be ours. I’m sure that $200 would go towards future medical bills for some sort of cardiac disease, but it seemed like a good idea for some reason.

The problem with this was I remembered the contest during work the same day and had no time to prepare. I simply tried to drink as much water as possible and didn’t eat for the entire day. For the team, I recruited Mackenzie, a fellow eating machine, to help me out.

They got out the giant pizza shovel and stared started making the pizza. It didn’t really look all that bad. We were relieved to see that the pizza crust wasn’t as thick as we thought it would be. The thing I was worried about were the rubix cube size chunks of ham being added. Morale was high, but concern definitely existed.

They brought out the biggest pizza box I have ever seen in my life and decided to put a large pizza box inside just to show us what we were getting ourselves into. If you can’t tell from the visual, the 30″ pizza is the equivalent of four larges. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the 2 pounds of meat on top. This wasn’t looking good.

We were actually pretty damn confident when the pizza finally came out. This was definitely something we thought we could pull off. We were in for one hell of a surprise. I thought the stack method would be the best way to go. This was supposed to consist of me cutting my half into different sections and stacking the pieces on top of each other and eating them together. The problem was that the crust was so thin the pieces kept breaking and falling apart. We then began rolling the pieces and eating them that way but ended up reverting to just grabbing up piles of cheese and meat with our hands and eating as quickly as possible.

We started off good, taking out about half the pizza in about 8 minutes. We hit the wall after that though. The combination of all the grease, meat, and huge pieces of crust at the ends of the slices makes this a pretty ridiculous challenge. I was sweating like a fat man, and felt drunk on pizza.

After about the 25 minutes, we completely hit the wall. Our heads were telling us to keep going but our stomachs were threatening to eject. We decided to give up with a little more than 3/4 of the pizza digested.

I really think with a little more prep this challenge could be completed. I think I need to detox for a month or two before I try and attempt this again. Oh, and if you were wondering If I as exaggerating about the ham, look in the bottom left corner of the picture above. Those chunks are ridiculous.

Bella Italia Pizza & Pasta
895 W Eisenhower Pkwy
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(734) 222-9994
http://www.bellaitaliapizzaandpasta.com/

May 25, 2009
1000 Year Old Eggs?

The other day everyone’s favorite historian, Chris Bacon, turned my attention to a certain menu item at an Ann Arbor eating establishment that got my interest. If you don’t know Mr. Bacon, here he is wearing a neck accessory:

At TK WU on E. Liberty in Ann Arbor, they are selling a dish called Congee with 1000 year Egg & Pork. A thousand year old egg? How is this possible?

Thankfully, my possibly inaccurate friends over at Wikipedia had me covered:

Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, and thousand-year-old egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken, or quail in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in the century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from around 9 to 12 or more.This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavorful compounds.

Here’s what one of these bad boys looks like cut in half:

I’m pretty sure you will see me eat one of these in the near future. The whole thing seems absolutely disgusting, but I’m just not one to let the opportunity to eat a spoiled egg that is considered a delicacy slip away. It’s right down the road!

April 13, 2009
Zingerman’s Roadhouse – Ann Arbor, MI

My darling of a girlfriend, Stephanie, took me to Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor on Sunday for my birthday and it was damn delicious. I have been meaning to visit this place since it opened because of the huge variety of food it offers. The menu features “old-time American classics” but gives you a lot more than just simple comfort food. You are given the option of creating your own cheese plate, a large oyster menu, a great domestic beer list, and reading materials giving you detailed information of pretty much everything on the menu. The wait staff is readily available to answer any questions you may have, and is well informed on all things food.

I started off with an oyster. I had never had the privilege, mainly because I was a bit weary of raw foods until a few years ago. The oysters offered raw or smoked, and I went with the raw Steamhouse oyster, which was recommended by our waitress. I can not even explain how delicious it was, and I regret ever being afraid of them. With a bit of the house made horse radish sauce, this was a delicious beginning to he meal.

After the oyster, we moved on to the appetizer menu which boasts a great variety of starters. We decided to go with the fried calamari and chili & cheddar fries. The calamari was good, but not great. I have had calamari many times, and this falls right in the middle of those experiences. It was not over fried, but the taste of the calamari didn’t completely shine through. I could give it a solid C+ as far as calamari goes. As for the chili & cheddar fries, I have never had anything like it. The twice-cooked fries were good, but the chili was complete with large tender pieces of beef. It was topped with 2-year raw-milk Vermont cheddar.

For our entrees, I had to go with the Texas cabrito with mashed potatoes and mac & cheese. The cabrito is pulled free-range goat that is smoked over wood and served with barbecue sauce. Wow, never had goat but it was absolutely delicious. I have to say that if you are not an adventurous eater, goat may not be for you. I can’t really explain what goat tastes like, but if you’re interested I would highly recommend it. The mashed potatoes were good, but the mac & cheese was very average. Stephanie ordered the New Mexico black bean and hominy burger. It was served with green chiles, avocado salad, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles, on a fresh onion roll. It was an interesting burger because the patty was not completely formed. It acted as more of a spread.

All in all, I would give Roadhouse a solid B. The appetizers and starters are the real star of the meal, while the entrees seemed pretty average. If you visit there, I would stick to the oysters, cheese plate, and appetizers.

March 17, 2009