Extreme Food that Breaks Records: The Hillbilly Homewrecker & Bull Testicles

Its noon time, you are as hungry as a bear, and you have it set in your mind that you just might starve to death if you don't get to the nearest restaurant before they sell out of food. You are also fairly positive that you could easily devour a horse or at the very least a nine pound cheeseburger better known as the meat monster proudly served at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. This could easily be followed by the 195 pound smoothie made at the Sunrise Shopping Centre in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to wash it down. These are extreme foods that have no problem breaking records and making it into the Guinness Book of World Records, and food junkies can't get enough of their monster size or taste. www.junkfoodnews.net/worldrecords.htm

Of course extreme food in no way is limited to cuisine that is in some cases the size of a house, a city building or a SUV, it also includes some of the most bizarre and spiciest food on the planet, and there is always someone out there craving, enhancing or inventing it. Our obsession with food comes naturally as we need it for our very survival, but how we eat it is left strictly to the eye of the beholder. Hunger pangs are triggered by all five of the senses, with sight being a big part of the equation.

Smell has quite a bit of power when it comes to warding off or enticing hunger pangs as well. A foul smelling entrée isn't going to make your mouth water unless you are inclined to eat fresh road kill or there is a large amount of money to be made from woofing it down as fast as you can, and doing everything in your power to keep it down while waves of nausea are buckling your knees. This could possibly fall under the category of the most bizarre foods on the planet which may include monkey brains. This particular entrée is cherished by the Chinese, but they are known to eat food that slithers, crawls, flies and walks off of the plate on its own.

Spicy food can also be thrown onto the list of extreme foods when you consider the level of heat that may be involved that turns the food into a nuclear creation that mimics an atom bomb detonating inside of your mouth. And although acid is not actually a food, it is part of many dishes that contain sauces that pack a punch of heat that simulates an inferno in your mouth. Bhut Jolokia aka ghost chile is the hottest chile pepper that hails from Northeastern India and it could easily top the list of fiery foods, but first place actually goes to none other than the infamous "insanity sauce".

Extreme Food with World Records

If clogged arteries and indigestion are not a problem, then you will love the 3.5 pound "Homewrecker" from Hillbilly's in West Virginia. The popular intestinally destructive hunk of meat formed into the shape of a hot dog is not complete until it is topped with nacho cheese, chili sauce, peppers, jalapenos, onions, mustard, ketchup, coleslaw, tomatoes, lettuce, and shredded cheese.

This weapon of mass destruction will set you back $14.99, but the whole shoot in match is completely free if you can woof it down in under four minutes. The Food Network sent Guy Fieri to check it out on a scheduled tour for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The Travel Channel ranked this extreme hot dog stand at #15 out of 101 tastiest places to chow down. http://www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/directions.php

In 2008 Bubba's Tacos in Costa Rica grilled a fish taco estimated to be approximately 20 feet long. The seafood monster included cheese, slaw, jalapeños, tomatoes, onions, lime wedges and hot sauce.

It comes as no surprise that the largest cupcake in the world was created by the mastermind Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes and Food Network's bad boy baker. You can almost see the power tools coming out for this one as Duff's confectionary creation is officially recorded into the Guinness Book of World Records for his 61.4 pound bakery creation that stands over a foot tall. The cupcake containing 16-pounds of butter helped to raise $10,000 in the Great American Bake Sale which aided in raising awareness for the Share Our Strength charity that works to fight hunger across the United States.

The World's largest wedding cake rocked the scale at 15,032 pounds and stood 17-feet tall. The 4,810 pounds of creamy frosting should have cured the sugar cravings of any sweet tooth. The Mohegan Sun wedding cake was carefully decorated with bows and hearts that fed 59, 000 people. The total weight of the cake was a little more than five Volkswagen Beetles.

Imagine trying to eat a 12,096 pound ice cream and brownie cake before it melts. Luckily the turn out for Carvel's 70th birthday Bash was a good one. City Harvest, the organization known for feeding the hungry distributed the cake to more than 800 emergency food programs throughout NYC.

Pierogi's are delicious when saturated with butter or caramelized onions, but how much butter and onions would you need to completely immerse a 92-pound mass of flour, eggs and potatoes? Lots and too much according to the officials at the Indiana Pierogi Festival. http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/07/worlds_largest_pierogi_92_poun.html

A Taste of the Spiciest Foods on Earth

Food critic and blogger for the Travel Channel, Allison Stein Wellner has eaten her share of spicy food, but she states that hands down an Indiana steak house holds the title for the strongest dish in the world. The shrimp cocktail is a favorite of frequent diners at the St. Elmo Steak House simply because twenty- pounds of horseradish are grated over the shrimp, each and every day. Allison described the sensation when eating the shrimp as what electrocution must feel like. She claims that the initial taste shot down her throat and then up her nose, forking its way into her brain sending the immediate impulse to clap her hands on her skull to keep the top from blowing off.

Quaker Steak & Lube offers an atomic hot sauce that is so potent that they request you sign a waiver before eating it. They claim the sauce is from the mountains in India and is made from the hottest pepper on Earth. The chicken wings are dredged in their secret sauce and then they are delivered to your table by a mask wielding waiter donning protective gloves. The brave soul risking it all for the sake of title is then asked to wear latex gloves. At this point warnings are issued and other patrons watch you in horror as your mouth, lips and face become a human inferno. To make it onto the ""Wall of Flame" you must completely gorge on six chicken wings aka become a clean plate member. For your efforts you will receive The Lube T-shirt stating that you are "Too Hot to Handle". http://quakersteak.securetree.com/Products/Bottles-of-Sauces-Award-Winners/Atomic-Wing-Sauce.aspx

Have you ever earned a certificate of completion for finishing a dish? Well that is exactly what you will receive if you become a clean plate member when eating Phall Curry at many of the restaurants that serve it. The British Asian Indian curry dish contains ten separate types of peppers, including scotch bonnet, habanera and Bhut Jolokia.

The Most Bizarre Food on the Planet

The Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods featuring host Andrew Zimmern's proves that the man fears nothing as he samples anything that moves on a trip through Spain where he chows down on suckling pig brains, bull testicles, and everything in between. Surprisingly the host with a seemingly iron gut admits to being grossed out once in awhile, and just what get's him? He claims that the spoiled and ammoniated, rotted, and putrid hakarl aka shark in Iceland worked on his gag reflex. He also squirms a bit over slimy, gutty disemboweled things that are being stuffed up close and personal. http://www.culinaryschools.org/blog/hakarl/

When visiting South Korea it is inevitable that at some point you will find the need to stop at one of the many street vendors to see what is cooking. And when you order fresh roasted peanuts as this is a popular item, make sure that it is peanuts that you are indeed eating and not silk worm pupae. Of course the stench of rotting meat should be your first clue that there is nothing fresh about what they are serving. My advice is to just keep walking.

I have never thought of maggots as sumptuous, however the good people of Sardinia might disagree with this as they love to feast on cheese fat filled maggots. Their rotten cheese aka casu marzu is considered a delicacy and the maggots think so too as they work their way through the cheese loaf and later all is eaten by the Sardinians.

They say that almost anything tastes good once it is deep-fried, but cockroaches? According to the residents of Thailand it is a tasty snack that is crunchy and you really do not even notice what you are eating courtesy of the crunchy breading.

Forget about the blueberries or chocolate chips, instead try some flies in your pancakes the next time you visit Malawi. In fact the flies can be caught in a net due to the exorbitant amount of the little disease carrying critters lurking just about everywhere. So the locals figured out a way to seek revenge on the pesky buzzing mini terrors with wings. They are flattened into a patty and due to intense heat they are then fried as a pancake on any available metal surface.

Sources:

http://www.roadjunky.com/article/1230/10-weirdest-foods-in-the-world

http://www.junkfoodnews.net/worldrecords.htm

http://www.tripleatomictough.com/

http://blog.hotelclub.com/the-5-spiciest-dishes-on-earth/

http://www.supersizedmeals.com/food/article.php/20060613194330569

http://www.delish.com/food/food-articles/largest-cupcake-duff-guinness

http://www.delish.com/food/food-articles/largest-cupcake-duff-guinness

http://www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/06/gigantic-horrifying.html

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/ace-of-cakes/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_Foods

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/9687163