From LA.Foodblogging, via A Hamburger Today; the In-N-Out 75×75.
How bad is it that I’m now ridiculously hungry?
Tag: food
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The Full Monte
(photo by Katie)
As I’ve told a lot of my out-of-town friends, NYC is (luckily) not quite the same as the rest of the world; we are missing a lot of chain restaurants. Chili’s, Denny’s, and Ruby Tuesday’s are totally absent; many of the “common” places (Outback/Red Lobster/Olive Garden) have only one or two locations. Hell, we have one 7-11 in all of Manhattan, and that just opened a month or two back.
It had been about thirteen years since I last ate at a Bennigan’s, and when I heard one had opened near Times Square, well, I just couldn’t help myself. I had a fever – a fever for Monte Cristo.
You see, Monte Cristo sandwiches aren’t hard to come by in the city – but they are when you want them the way Bennigan’s does them. Deep fried, dusted in powdered sugar, and served with delicious raspberry jelly, it’s the sandwich equivalent of a deep-fried Snickers bar. In the eyes of some, it single-handedly represents all that could be considered wrong with the casual dining industry.
That said, it’s delicious. Absolutely delicious. It is a sandwich without parallel.
My stomach, of course, couldn’t handle it – I only made it through two of the four gigantic slices served to me. I hope to some day return, and perhaps complete the whole thing. I get the feeling, though, that Katie may attempt to bar me from ever going to Bennigan’s again, out of fear that I’ll once again order this golden brown monstrosity.
In [my Nathan’s 2005 Hot Dog Eating Contest wrapup](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2005/07/nathans_famous.php), I had mused:
> Oddly, Badlands Booker had on an iPod – I’m sure the world would love to know what one listens to while bingeing on hot dogs.
The intrepid [Peter Cohen](http://www.tikkabik.com) is a man of action and quick thinking. He promptly emailed Eric, mentioning that Katie and I had seen him at the event and that I was wondering what was on the iPod. And lo and behold, a response came:
> Hello Peter, Dan, & Katie: Thanks for emailing me and for all your kind words! I apologize for responding so late. basically i can’t live without my iPod Photo. i use it as a photo album to store all my pictures from all the different eating contest and appearances, and use for image training to help me focus for an event, as far as music, i have about 3000 songs, lots of Old and New School Hip Hop from albums, mixtapes, and also instrumentals that i recite my newly written rap songs to (I store my songs on my iPod as well), R&B, Some Classic Rock, Jazz, & Gospel tracks, up tempo Dance Music for when I’m competing in a eating contest, so i can eat to the beat, and of course, Hungry & Focused and cuts off my new album Hungry & Focused II – The Ingestion Engine available this fall. Thanks again for emailing me and asking what’s on my iPod, and again for your kind words, you’re the best!
Thanks to Peter for chasing this to completion, I honestly didn’t expect to ever find out.