Bethany Jean Clement/Seattle Times
Love Pho? Love it enough to spend $40 to try and finish the Pho Super Bowl Challenge at Dong Thap Noodles restaurant in Seattle?
One group of brave souls tried it out to see if they could finish four liters of broth, four pounds of noodles and four pounds of meat in one-and-a-half hours. The four challengers: Chef Miles James, former owner of Fremont’s much-missed Dot’s Delicatessen, now at meat-haven Radiator Whiskey; man-about-town Chas Roberts, formerly of T.G.I. Friday’s, now impresario/musician/gourmand/graphic designer; pastry chef Matt Tinder, formerly of the Bay Area’s vaunted Coi and the Restaurant at Meadowood, opening Saboteur Bakery in Bremerton; and Seattle Times writer Bethany Jean Clement. The prize? $100.
The Dong Thap Noodles Pho challenge features a 4 litter bowl of pho, with four pounds of noodles and four pounds of meat. (Photo: Dong Thap Noodles Facebook)
Two people had tried before them. Neither had succeeded. Their research revealed that while estimates of the capacity of the human stomach in a state of distension vary, completing the Pho Super Bowl Challenge is not physiologically possible.
Owners Nick Bui and Khanhvan (K.V.) Tran make all their noodles on-site in an arduous four-day process. Tinder – who, with a baker’s precision, had already calculated that they’d each have to engulf 33 grams of broth per minute – rapidly arranged the different components of his pho for some secret plan of optimal consumption, his chopsticks flying. James subjected his soup to an onslaught of Sriracha and plum sauce. Roberts’ tactic was to immediately begin eating all the tripe to get it out of the way, because he doesn’t like tripe.
Twenty minutes in, only Tinder’s bowl showed a detectable decrease in level. All challengers developed a sheen of sweat. Owner Tran came to the table and reassured us that she was also a nurse, should we need medical help.
Before their time was even up, the contestants reached the limits of human endurance. Better luck next time!
