Monday, October 22, 2007

Meat the Biggest Burger in the World

A Pennsylvania restaurant put a 15-pound burger on its menu, claiming that it is the largest burger available anywhere.

Dennis Liegey, the owner of Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, 120 northeast of Pittsburgh, said the "Beer Barrel Belly Buster" weighs in with 10 pounds of meat molded into a 20-inch patty on a specially baked, 17-inch bun.

The balance of the weight comes from 25 slices of cheese, one small barbell, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, an anvil, two onions, plus copious quantities of mayo, ketchup, relish, mustard, and peppers. For fifty cents extra, you can also get an after dinner mint.

Any two people who can eat it within a three-hour sitting get it for free. For everyone else, it costs $30. Ambulance fees and stomach pumping procedures are available at a small additional charge.

"We've been running a burger challenge since 1991," said Liegey. "It started out with two- and three-pound patties, and went to a six-pounder in 1998 with five pounds of toppings."
When eating the burger, most people look like a full-sized anaconda consuming a small deer.

“The best way to battle this burger is to swallow it whole and let it break down in your digestive tract,” eating consultant Munchy Belcher said.
“I haven’t taken on this burger yet, but you can be sure I will. As soon as I have a decent bowel movement, I’ll be ready for this beast” Belcher explained. “I just finished a Cornish game hen-eating contest this weekend, so I’m a little overstuffed right now. Does anyone have a Rolaids?”
Over the years Liegey said he has sold more than 10,500 of the two- and three-pounders, and 853 of the six-pounders. That’s over 26,000 lbs. of hamburgers, or almost 80 Rosie O’Donnells.
Liegey has kept careful count of how many diners have finished each offering: 256 ate the whole two-pounder and 39 finished three-pounders. And last February, one person, a 100-pound female college student, Kate Stelnick, from Princeton, New Jersey, ate the entire six-pounder. (The burger with toppings represented 11 percent of her body weight.) She hasn’t eaten anything since.

The 15-pound burger can feed a family of 10, according to Liegey. He has sold two so far to teams of two people, and neither team did much more than put a dent in it.
(Thanks for CNN.com and AOL.com for portions of this article. Some of the material here has been fictionalized for your amusement.)