The Polo24Bar’s Breggfast Challenge.
Right, so this challenge is on for the Easter week and consists of ‘3 sandwiches’. Complete the stack in 10 minutes and get the meal for free plus a bottle of prosecco. Fail, and you pay the price of £18.
I was working near the venue that week, so thought I would swing by on the way home and treat it as practice for another challenge I’m planning, and get another win in the books. Looking at the pictures, it didn’t seem too bad.
I was wrong, oh so very wrong. This is a perfect example of do your research before you try a challenge, and even then, be prepared for the worst. Walking into this one, I’d assumed it wouldn’t take much capacity, so ate as normal throughout the day. When I ordered it, the manager looked at me and asked if I was sure I wanted to do this. Should have picked up on that queue, but at the time I didn’t see anything that scary about 3 sandwiches.
Well, when it arrived, I could see why they were sceptical of anyone even wanting to try tackle this thing. It was about as high as my torso. Lots of bread. At that moment a cold realisation sunk in that I bit off more than I could chew. Still, I counted the slices, did the math, and prepared a plan of how to tackle that thing:
First off the bat, eating a sandwich stack is awkward. I couldn’t take it apart as I usually do with challenges, so ended up tackling it one layer at a time. Part way through, all the bread was making it slow progress. I knew I would need to speed things up. So, about one third of the way in, I made the call to dunk the slices of break to help soften them up, reduce chewing, and save time on sips. I try avoid this, but I knew that to beat this thing I would need all the help I could get. Throughout the challenge, my mind was a mix of, I can do this, to oh no, this is a fail.
The sandwiches themselves were a mix. The favours I think were: avocado, breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage), and another spinach and mushroom thing. To be honest, I was in panic mode for a lot of it. What stood out to me was the really generous servings of avocado, and the bacon, that whilst tasting good, was tough to get down fast.
Slice by slice, topping by topping, I raced through the stack. Bread, filling, bread, bread?
I didn’t give up, and in the end, went home with a bottle of bubble, and a very full stomach. Another win, just, made it on the buzzer and had to chipmunk the last bit, but I don’t think they expected anyone to get that far. The other plus is, I feel a lot more comfortable going into my next challenge. I faced a mental wall and pushed through it.
I think by the time of posting, this promotion challenge will be over, but keep an eye out to other events at http://polo24hourbar.co.uk/ .
