Today I bring you something a little frivolous… A few weeks ago I was having dinner in a massive Japanese restaurant where we ordered a dessert which was basically a big volcano-shaped mound of crushed ice covered in a thin layer of mango. It came in a massive bowl which was more than enough for four or more people and I speculated as to whether one person could eat it whole.
This turned out to be a mistake when the 11-year-old nephew of a friend challenged me to an ice eating competition the following Saturday where we would see who could eat the same desert in the fastest time! I wasn’t sure if eating so much ice in such a short period of time would be such a good idea so consulted with a doctor to make sure it wouldn’t kill anyone. He wasn’t prepared to guarantee that it wouldn’t but said it was “probably harmless” 😀
Side note: the centrepiece of the restaurant was a massive tree covered in thousands of LEDs which simultaneously glowed different colours. Somehow they managed to pull it off without it looking too tacky. The artwork on the walls was also another matter…
On Saturday morning we reconvened in the same restaurant and much to the bemusement of the staff promptly ordered two of the mango-ice volcanoes.
At 25 minutes long I think we’ve proved that eating crushed ice is not something that can be done quickly by amateurs. After about 10 minutes I lost most of the feeling in my mouth which went numb but this still didn’t increase the rate at which I could shovel it in. My competitor complained of brain freeze but found a novel way of speeding things up by first melting the ice into more of a slush composition which seems to have given him the edge leading to victory.
Unless you fancy experiencing the feeling of eating a glacier I wouldn’t encourage anyone to try this at home!
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