Pizza... take 2

So on another day of boredom, Chris and I decided to make another pizza. Partially because our first one was pretty damn awesome, but also partially because our crust was overly... pillowy the first time. Anyway, experimentation is always good. This time we found another pizza crust recipe, of which I'm not sure of the details (this was all Chris), which called for us to make our dough, let it rise, beat it down... basically the same routine as any other dough. This one differed from our last mainly because it asked us to bake for 15 minutes prior to adding sauce and cheese. So we went about our business, made our dough, heated it beneath the heat lamp (borrowed from the turtles), and baked it. Oh yeah, this time we had a pizza stone. Maybe that helped a little. Maybe.


See our dough... laid out freehand on the pizza stone, dusted lightly with basil and coated with olive oil (I think there's something I'm forgetting since I distinctly remember seeing Chris crumbling something). It looks so... naked. I failed to snap a picture of the baked crust, but there was a moment of worry when we saw a giant bubble in the oven. I proceeded to pop and flatten that, and also burn myself. My hand hates me btw. There's also probably the element of my impatience to add to that equation. I was in a real hurry to pile on sauce and toppings, so I completely forgot about pictures.


Look at Chris go. I don't think he ever realizes I'm taking pictures until they show up on my blog. For the record, if he looks dazed, it's because I had just woken him up 5 minutes before that so we could continue our pizza making.


Pizza is no longer naked. We liberally spread sauce, 1/2 a pound of mozzarella cheese (shredded by Chris), sausage, green peppers, and chunks of chicken breast. I know what you're thinking... this is stupid not too exciting, those are boring/traditional toppings. Well you know what? This is my blog, and I'll post stupid stuff as much as I want.


Into the oven that went, and 10 minutes later, we were greeted by this gorgeous, non-symmetrical pie. You know, I think I liked how this one looked better than the perfectly rectangular pie we were planning on making. It has character.

Also, btw... to the person who made me listen to Miley Cyrus/Taylor Swift... if you're reading this, I absolutely hate you. It's really embarrassing when someone walks in when I'm listening to 'Party in the USA.'
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I told you I eat when I'm stressed right?

I should also mention I'm getting seriously chubs... like, shouldn't even talk about rowing at coxswain weight chubs. I felt like I needed to justify my long absence from posting, so here I'm gonna bitch and moan explain why I've been lazy lately. First off, you don't understand how hard it is to get professors to write you recommendations on time. I thought it'd be easy, since I see them everyday (LOL not really), but yeah... once you do get a hold of them, they tell you they will, and a week later... still nada. So I've been racking my brains over that. Also... I've had a few trying midterms lately. Intro to statistical reasoning was a toughie... so was E&M properties of solids, but it was mostly that damn statistics class. Anyhoo, what comprised of studying for me was eating chocolate chip cookies, a burger with fries, buffalo wings, and ice cold cream soda. I think I failed that E&M exam btw, so clearly... my 'studying' failed. On a related note, don't ever talk to me if I'm actually studying. I rarely do, so if I'm actually studying... it's probably because I'm actually going to fail.


Reason number 2 why I've neglected myinnerfatty... PUZZLE CHALLENGE. I don't know if I ever explained this (probably not, since I started this blog after CPC last year), but imagine being in a room for 12 hours (well 9 this year...) just solving puzzles. Basically it's a nerdfest to the highest order... and it's something my suitemates and I pride ourselves in more than anything. A little backstory. Sophomore year, 4 fresh faced sophomores formed a team, under the banner, thought of by none other than yours truly, 'IdHitThat,' probably the single most offensive puzzle challenge name to women everywhere. Backstory to that... I was supposed to be on another team, but kind of bailed on them and asked my current suitemates behind their backs (I'm sorry about that! Oh wait, no I'm not... we're awesome, almost as awesome as spandex. Almost...). Anyhoo, sophomore year... we snipe 1st place at Columbia in the last hour of the contest, winning on the basis of points alone. We finished 56th in the nation? Junior year, full of confidence, we almost gave up halfway through since we were losing to another team 'Lorem Ipsum' with about 4 hours left. Once again, we charge through in the final 2 hours and win, again, on the basis of points. So many points in fact, that we were the highest point finisher who didn't solve the final puzzle. We were 28th in the nation. Senior year, we once again feel dejected about halfway through, trailing 'Lorem Ipsum' by 60 points. In the next 2 hours, we stopped dicking around, overtook everyone at Columbia on points, and then solved the final puzzle with 3 hours left. We finished 1st at Columbia and 3rd in the nation. Take that MIT (I'm joking... I love you guys and I'd love to study there next year). See that picture? Super sweet senior squad. Like that alliteration?


I'd also like to add that our team got this stupid puzzle without finishing the set. Take that... everyone who actually took the time to dick around and finished assembling. Graceful winners? No. Awesome? Yes... almost as much as spandex.
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The absurdity of Koronets Pizza

Remember that giant slice from Koronet's? Yeah, well Dominic came up with this awesome idea of getting a full pie. Just because it'd be super epic. Or as Daven would say... "stupid epic." Anyhoo, enjoy the picture of the pie in all its glory. Total cost was $31.50, but only because we got a full pie + 1 slice for Chris haha. The plan was for Dom and myself to finish 4 slices a person, but after pulling a 5k moderately hard, I could only bring myself to eat 3... which is not to say I couldn't have more, just I didn't want to feel like crap after eating. Contrary to popular belief, I actually like enjoying my food. Why did we get Koronet's instead of going to that place in Brooklyn? Well... because Davenport Sutton had a 40 page thesis he had to submit, and we felt guilty going without him. Super brolove.


Dom with the pie, I have to give him full credit as getting Koronet's was his idea. Pretty winner. Almost as much win as spandex. Almost.


Oh, and there's me with the pie. Just as a mention, it should be noted that the Brooklyn pizza challenge is a 16" pie to be completed within 10 minutes. That is approximately 201.06 square inches in pizza. Koronet's slices are 14" in radius, therefore, with 3 slices, we're already looking at 230.91 square inches of pizza. I did not finish in 10 minutes, but I did do so in roughly 30, savoring every single last inch of greasy cheese. Rocco's pizza... come January, I'ma make you my bitch.
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I'm still here... I swear

I realize I haven't been posting lately, and for that I apologize. Actually nevermind, I don't like apologizing, even when I've done something wrong. It's a pride thing. Whatever, the point is, the reason why I haven't been posting... well, there's midterms for the next 2 weeks (so maybe I'll post, but not as often). There's also puzzle challenge, which means I'm in super serious concentration mode (haha not really true). There's also me trying to learn failing miserably at how to write an iPhone app for seriouseats, so yeah... my palate's pretty full.

Oh, and also that nonsense about me building a bike... almost forgot about that. Continue to check back on that if you're interested, saddle arrived today, and the remaining parts got accidentally shipped to Chris' house. Super win.

Since this post has become a giant whinefest about how busy I am, I should also add that I'm now also training to compete at CRASH-B's. Basically a giant erg'off in February so rowers have an excuse to wear spandex, and talk about how awesome wearing spandex is, and possibly purchase more spandex. No seriously, I'm gonna drop weight to 130 and try to win a hammer as a coxswain. Let's be honest, I'd get smoked in the collegiate/open division, but coxswains... it'll be awesome. Almost as awesome as spandex. Almost.

And the picture... remember, I said I hate making posts without pictures. As most of you are unaware of, my suite is in the possession of 2 turtles, most graciously given to us by a friend of my sister (thanks Ben! Even though you probably don't read this). They provide us with a moderate source of stress relief in our otherwise hectic lives. I like to take them out and chase them around as if I were Godzilla and they were small Japanese children. I would tell you their names, but that's embarrassing. If you're part of Columbia housing services, everything I wrote in the past paragraph is fiction.
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Domination of Kenka's 'Jumbo Curry'

So yeah, this post is super heavy on the images, so I apologize in advance for that. Also, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you've probably already seen half these pictures. Anyhoo, for no apparent reason... Chris, Han, and I decided we were going to go to Kenka for dinner. I mean, it was Halloween and it seemed way lame for us to stay at Columbia for another weekend night, so what better way than to get our faces stuffed with curry! Okay, so the original plan was to head to Kenka early (around 7ish) to polish off the lame curry challenge, and then off to a sports bar around St. Mark's Place to watch the Phillies destroy the Yankees (only in Chris' head). How's J.A. Happ doing btw Chris (I know you'll read this eventually)? So yeah, we walked to 96th since there was no service for the downtown 1 at Columbia, since, we figured more walking would just make us hungrier. In fact, this was all going to plan since I had erged a 10k with Chris earlier that day (for the record, I could still smoke most of the walkons). I had a feeling that it would be tremendously epic.



So what follows deserves a little back story. We get to Kenka and order up. The jumbo curry for Han and myself, and the simple katsu curry for Chris, who didn't want to play. As far as how this was... I think it was about $8 (actually I know for a fact Kenka has a stupid $8 minimum per party at the table, so there's no way it was less), and Chris said it was overpriced compared to Go Go Curry. He was slightly irked that they only gave him a spoon (probably because he's White haha) so he couldn't cut his katsu. His exact words were "it wasn't memorable, but it was good for what it was." In any case, the waiter returned to the table with two small servings of just curry rice and plopped them in front of me and Han. We were super confused. We thought, maybe this is just part of the whole challenge. Good thing we asked though, the waiter who took our order misunderstood, and thought we just wanted the curry rice. He then proceeded to go down to the basement to grab 2 giant silver trays to confirm that's what we wanted. They were pretty mediocre sized. I felt ready to piss my pants pretty confident.


When our waiter returned with our massive contest sized curry dishes, I was greeted by this. A pile of rice with a smiling face... filled with curry. Han's didn't have the face, and I swear he had less rice, although he'd tell you otherwise. This is what I had to finish within 20 minutes, or else I'd have to pay $25. Pretty good deal actually, 4 pounds of food for $25, but I really didn't want to pay. Now that I look at that picture, it's almost as if the curry is mocking me...


Anddddd... we start! I covered my mouth in the very beginning because I wanted to keep table manners. I don't like chewing with a stuffed mouth in front of others. I quickly abandoned this, when I realized I cared more about speed of eating than about outward appearance.


This is Han at the very start. Notice the golden glow of curry on his cheek. I mean that in the straightest way possible. He tried pacing himself, so his start was a little bit slower. In the first 5 minutes, all I kept hearing was... "how are you doing this?"


My plate about 5 minutes in. I went nuts at the very beginning, shoveling way more food into my mouth in that time period than I probably should over the course of an hour. In any case, 5 minutes in, I was about halfway through my plate. I was just cruisin'. In fact, I was almost sure that I could finish in about 10 minutes.


I don't think it's very obvious, but if you notice the 2 plates of curry, mine is significantly smaller than Han's. In retrospect, a slow and steady wins the race approach would've probably been better.


Then about 10 minutes in, reality sets in. I only have about 4 or 5 bites left to take (albeit a lot of potatoes... which suck... and also a lot of carrots and assorted meats). I distinctly remember feeling some of it coming back up, then insisting to Chris that I had to take a breather. What happened exactly was that, I asked Chris to tell me when it reached 14 minutes, then I'd finish the remainder. Seriously... too much, too fast.


Then within 2 minutes of hitting the 14 minute mark, I finished my plate. All 4 pounds of it. There was a moment within the last 4 bites that sucked. I ate what I thought was a piece of chicken breast, only to discover that it was soft... chicken... skin. Imagine feeling insanely sick, then slowly gnawing on a piece of pure fat. Yeah, that was the pinnacle of the night.


Whatever, I finished within 17 minutes. Something close to 16:30 or 16:40. When I asked the waitress what the fastest time they'd seen was, they said someone did it in 12 minutes. What kind of freak does that? Honestly, I want to know.


Here's Han... throwing in the towel. The last minute was pretty entertaining. Han kept insisting that everything was fine, that he'd shovel everything in his mouth in the final 10 seconds. Which is when our waitress (who had the hugest grin on her face) began counting down for 30 seconds, and then for 10 seconds. Immediately after she said he had 10 seconds left... his response? "Actually can I get this to go please?"


And the front to the shirt that I won. My curry was free (thank god) and I can always claim that I've beaten Kenka's Jumbo Curry Challenge. Also, I think the Asian girls at the table next to ours were super impressed (or disgusted). Either way, when they tried to make their boyfriends do it, they refused... probably because they knew how badly they'd fail. In retrospect, no one really won. I felt like death for the 2 hours following (although I ultimately did go to a sports bar later that night), and Kenka lost $25 and a shirt. I feel like a winner today though haha.
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