Val Bromann ::: Blog ::: October 2007

Posts from October, 2007

chattanooga chew chew

Posted by Val on October 31st, 2007 at 11:00 pm | Permalink | 3 Comments » |

My day at the Krystal Square Off.
a report by Val Bromann

Yes, we drove ten hours to Chattanooga and ten hours back to Chicago to watch people eat hamburgers for eight minutes.

Yes, we are weird and wacky and insane.

Yes, it was totally worth it!

The whole event started at noon with “Free Krystals, games, etc. etc.” We had to check out of our hotel by 11 and had nowhere else to go, so we arrived around 11:30/11:45. We saw some people in Krystal Fan T-shirts so we went to scope out where we could get some. Nad and I bought red ringers that say “Official Fan of the World Hamburger Eating Championship.” Bryan got a yellow one that said “Future Champion.”

The T-shirt lady showed us where they’d be giving out free Krystals. We told her that we’d never had any before and then we’d driven the ten hours from Chicago just for the contest. She mentioned that she hated White Castles.

We went and stood in line for Krystals, where we started to determine that it seemed that we were the only people there who did not live within a 2-mile radius of the event. Are we really the only crazies in the world?

So we got our Krystals. A Krystal Lady came up and took my pic because I’d put on my t-shirt and had my burger. We told her our story about never having had a Krystal before and driving all that way. And she gave us free posters! Score! She then pointed us in the direction of the Krystal Confessional where Nad and I got a video taken of us trying our burgers for the first time (see previous entry)

Shortly after coming out, T-shirt lady came and tracked us down with another Krystal person. She asked us if we really drove all that way just for the competition. Yes, yes we did. We came, of course, to cheer on our hometown Deep Dish hero!

They kind of thought that was awesome…and then kind of gave us free V.I.P. passes. !?!?!?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?!

We were kind of totally shocked!

That basically meant that we got to go way up in front of the crowd and watch in the press area. SUPER AWESOME because that meant not only did we have great seats, but we didn’t have to worry about trying to find and save seats at all!!! And we’d be right there in the action! And maybe even get drooled on or something!

Nadia and I were seriously the giddiest little clams you would ever see in your life. EVER!

We wandered about collecting more awesome Krystal stuff. We got a free t-shirt, thunder sticks and pompoms! We watched the competitors being brought in convertibles (except for Sonya…how did she not get a convertible??) And then stood in line to get autographs but were only able to maddeningly score Joeys.

We went and tracked down the woman who gave us the passes and she let us through the ropes and told us where to go…which ended up being just us and the press. Seriously, I don’t think any of the other VIPs knew that they could come around and stand right up front…

First were the bunnettes, then the amateur competition, then the National Anthem…and then…the MAIN EVENT (only slightly delayed due to live bowling coverage…)

All the competitors were introduced…then they were off! And my oh my can they eat!!!! and eat. and eat. Actually eat is the wrong word. Consume? Devour? Absorb? Ingurgitate?

It really was the Joey, Pat, Bob show…”Humble” Bob Shoudt was mighty impressive at chowing down burgers…especially for a vegetarian

:-)

And Joey “Jaws” Chestnut was…amazing! Seriously! I don’t know where all that food goes! And then…and then…in a history making, record-shattering moment…he hit 100!!!! 100 burgers in less than eight minutes!!! Holy processed cow meat!

The Krystal Square Off was an absolutely amazing battle and ended with Joey “Jaws” Chestnut in first (103 Krystals), “Humble” Bob Shoudt in second (95 Krystals), and “Deep Dish” Pat Bertoletti in third (94 Krystals). And I can’t even begin to describe how defeated Pat looked (especially since just a few weeks ago he defeated both Joey and the great Tsunami Kobayashi at Chicken Wings).

:-(

It was an amazingly awesome contest. Those eight minutes were completely worth 20 hours in the car…

Afterwards we hung around and got pics with a couple of the eaters, including Mr. Joey Chestnut himself.

Then we went and got a picture with Pat. He asked if we’d met before and said he knew he’d seen me before. (he most likely remembers seeing our crazy selves at the Jalapeno eating contest, although we were too chicken to go up to him there). :-) He also asked “You didn’t come here just to see me, did you?” “[yescauseyourehot] nono, for the whole event!”

Truth be told, the original mission of the trip was to see Kobayashi in action. But alas his jaw injury had kept him away :( Ohwellz. I am so happy that we went anyways!!!

So we let Pat go because he had to catch a plane to Chicago and we had to drive to Chicago.

And then we drove to Chicago.

And that is a very long drive. (but did I mention that it was totally worth it?)

**MORE PICTURES HERE!**

chattanooga chew chew | 3 Comments » |

krystal confessions

Posted by Val on October 31st, 2007 at 7:12 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

Everyone told me that Krystals were kind of like White Castles, which made me nervous because I hate Castle sliders. Let’s just say that there were a pleasant surprise…the Krystal meat isn’t gray.
:-)

Of course, I was full after two of them…how can anyone eat 103 in 8 minutes???
(pics and a recap later…I swear!)

krystal confessions | No Comments » |

road pong!

Posted by Val on October 29th, 2007 at 11:40 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

Let’s start with Saturday

I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning surprisingly awake. I think it was kind of like when you’re a kid how you can wake up on Christmas morning before anyone else and be completely ready to go. Except instead of waiting for Santa Claus I was waiting for Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti. I showered and packed up my car then went to pick up Nadia and Bryan.

Before 7am we were already on the road to Chattanooga for the Krystal Square Off, the only Major League Eating sanctioned hamburger contest, and one of their top two competitions. The Square Off is held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 600 miles away and a nine and a half hour drive.

The drive was boring and fun and beautiful and crazy all at the same time. The road signs wanted us to play pong but we determined that may be a bad idea. We also determined that there has to be some sort of street called neutralville between the neighboring towns of brownsburg and whitestown.

At about one or so we made it to our first destination: Cave City, Kentucky. Cave City is an anomaly of a town that is basically my idea of heaven. Our first stop int he town was Big Mike’s Rock and Gift Shop and Mystery House. We wandered the gift shop for a bit and then purchased our $1.06 admission for the guided tour of the mystery house…

The first room we went to was full of posters. You know the things: the sentence that has an extra “the” that you completely ignore, the drawing of the two hands drawing each other, the staircases that you can’t tell which way was up, etc. etc. Pretty basic everyone’s seen it stuff…

The next room was blacklight posters. A room filled with blacklight posters. That was all. They glowed. It was psychedelic or something.

And then on to the good stuff…

The next room was freaky deeky awesome. There was a water fountain and the stream of water ran UPWARDS. And there were pool balls on a ledge that fell UPWARDS and stayed there. And there was a chair that balanced on the wall and I sat on it and was like floating. And the whole room felt like I was going to topple over because it was on weird gravity-defying angles. It was hard to even stand in there!

The next room had a little house thingy and when we went in depending on where you stood you looked either really short or really tall. And then there was a ledge that looked like it was completely on an angle, but in reality was the only thing that was perfectly straight across so when you stood on it you felt completely in balance even though it looked lopsided and you were toppling over everywhere else.

Then it was on through a hall of portraits…those things that look normal at first but then change to look all freaky when you pass…and that was that. The most awesomest Mystery House ever! Totally worth the buck admission. We tipped an extra buck to our fourteen year old tour guide Alex and headed on our way.

We were going to go to the old decrepit wax museum…but it was closed…perhaps permanently :(

We passed by the KY action park (mmmhmmm) but did not go…

We stopped at Dinosaur World, which is kind of a park like Jurassic Park but I don’t think the donos are real. We didn’t feel like paying the $10 admission though…

Then we stopped by Wigwam Village. It’s a motel…where all of the rooms are wigwams. Seriously, these babies have real beds and cable TV and everything. And are shaped like wigwams. I am so making JoeJoe take us canoeing or something around here sometime so we can stay in these :)

Then after it was a quick bite to eat and we headed off to Tennessee, Georgia, Tennessee (silly directions)…

The views through Tennessee are awesome…but we especially loved the runaway truck ramps going up the mountains…

By about seven we made it to Chattanooga and our wonderful Days Inn! Ideally we would have stayed across the street at the Sheraton (they sponsored the Krystal Square Off and so we assumed they hosted all fo the eaters there) but in the interest of saving $100 we opted for cheap motel. Once there we basically passed out for a bit watching a crappy movie. Then we walked a couple of blocks to Sticky Fingers BBQ for dinner. The food there was amazing. I got a pulled pork/half slab combo with Tennessee whiskey bbq sauce. The meat completely just fell of the bone. I picked it up an the bone was completely dry. And it wasn’t fatty at all. That’s a rib!

We were thinking of doing something afterwards but we were all pretty much exhausted so we went back and called it a night. Needed to rest up for the Krystal Square Off and the long, long drive home…

***MORE PICTURES HERE!!!***

road pong! | No Comments » |

you’re the only ten i see

Posted by Val on October 29th, 2007 at 2:07 am | Permalink | 5 Comments » |

1. Sometimes you tell someone that you drove ten hours to see the hamburger contest. And then sometimes that person finds someone else who gets you VIP passes to go stand all the way up in front with the press.

2. Sometimes records are broken.

3. Sometimes your favorite eater kind of remembers seeing you before :)

4. Sometimes you seriously have what may be the best roadtrip ever. :)

Recap, pictures, etc. to come later.

For now, it’s 2am and I just got home after driving the entire 10+ hours (damn constuction) from Chattanooga…zzzzzzzzzzzzz

you’re the only ten i see | 5 Comments » |

krystal square off…here i come!

Posted by Val on October 26th, 2007 at 10:39 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

When you hear the whistle blowin’ eight to the bar
Then you know that Tennessee is not very far
Shovel all the coal in
Gotta keep it rollin’
Woo, woo, Chattanooga there you are
So Chattanooga choo choo
Won’t you choo-choo me home?
Chattanooga choo choo
Won’t you choo-choo me home?
Yup, I’m in Chattanooga! But I doubt I’ll see much of it :) Driving 10 hours Saturday to get there…watching an eight-minute hamburger-eating contest on Sunday…driving ten hours back :) but it’s so worth it!!!
Watch the Krystal Square off on ESPN at 1:30pm central on Sunday!!!

krystal square off…here i come! | No Comments » |