A few months ago my buddy Steve brought me the news that his family had purchased a sandwich shop and they would feature a sandwich challenge known as The Double Dagwood. This sounded like a fantastic idea to me because I was fresh off my destruction of the Bomber Breakfast and I was ready to take out another local eating challenge. February 1st was their grand opening and I was there. My production crew(production crew, HAHA) bailed on me so I was forced to travel all the way to Monroe to take the Double Dagwood Challenge at Doby’s Dagwoods all by my lonesome. Could a one man force complete this task? Was it a suicide mission? Well, I guess you have to keep reading to find out.
Upon arrival, I was shown the frame on the wall which displayed the current record holder, a man weighing over one hundred pounds more than myself who finished the sandwich in 21 minutes and 45 seconds. I had seen pictures of the sandwich before on Steve’s cell phone but it did the sandwich no justice. This thing was a monster. The Double Dagwood is basically two of their already large Dagwood Sandwiches. It’s a double decker version with pretty much every meat in the place, a couple different kinds of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and their special dagwood sauce, which is a honey mustard sauce.
I took a seat and they began constructing the sandwich. After a few minutes went by I needed to witness what I was about to eat. Upon entering the kitchen, the familiar sandwich from the display was laid out on their prep area. This thing was going to be rough. I’ve eaten a lot of food before but nothing like this. I think I’ve eaten around three pounds of food before, but it’s never been in the form of a sandwich and it was never timed.
Finally, after adding more meat then they had thought was necessary, the sandwich went onto the scale. I had expected a four pound sandwich but apparently the sandwich only weighs in at three, which chips and a pickle on the side. Regardless of the one pound weight difference, this was still going to be tough. They put the sandwich in front of me on the table and the thing was really starting to scare me. I had acted pretty confident up until this point but I was really beginning to have doubts. Could I actually do this? Could my stomach hold this entire thing in? I was about to find out.
Unfortunately my production crew(production crew, HAHA) was absent during the challenge, so you’re going to have to take my word on my technique.
I took the sandwich apart and spit it in halves. The bottom half contained most of the meat so I decided it would be smart to begin with that. Upon my first bite, it really hit me how much meat was on this thing. Even after squeezing it down as much as possible, there was still four or five inches of meat to bite through. My technique was simply to take as big of bites as possible and chew frantically. I definitely tested the size of my esophagus and swallowed some chunks of meat that weren’t even partially chewed yet. I ate the middle piece of bread in between bites and the first half the sandwich went down in only about six minutes. This was going well so far.
Upon my first bite of the top half of the sandwich, I realized that the onions on this sandwich were among the most potent onions I have ever had. One hit the back of my throat and my gag reflex was immediately triggered. I went through and pulled off as many onions as I could. This is where things started going bad. I kept eating and shoving the chips into my mouth but my jaw was growing very tired. Bites were taking twice as long to chew and time was going by fast. At the 21 minute and 45 second mark, I had only about a bite or two left or bread and the scraps that were on my plate.
I took a small break and finished the sandwich in about 24 minutes. I was full, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t the fullness that prevented me from setting a new record. My jaw was overworked and those onions punches me in the back of the throat.
I will return shortly to complete this record after doing some jaw gymnastics or something. This shouldn’t be too tough next time. Thanks to Steve and Doby’s Dagwoods for making me this gigantic sandwich on their opening day.
Update: I was informed by Steve that the previous record holder actually completed the challenge with a pound less meat than I did so apparently the word is that I am the new record holder. Excellence is my middle name.
If you want to try the Double Dagwood for yourself, the address is..
Doby’s Dagwoods
111 South Monroe Street
Monroe, MI 48161
http://www.dobysdagwood.com/