Stephen Fung vs. Fraiche’s Full Sized Burger Slider and Fries Challenge

This past Wednesday I battled traffic all the way out to the North Shore mountains to sample a burger created by the culinary minds at Fraiche Restaurant. This restaurant, nestled amongst the treetops is located in the heart of suburbia in West Vancouver. In fact, I didn’t even realize you could put a restaurant this far into a residential area. I guess even the Uber Rich get peckish after a long day of mergers and acquisitions. Of course, a 7-11 simply won’t do.

So, after having a morning business meeting in Coquitlam, I ventured off to meet up with John Chow and Ed Lau to take on this new gourmet burger on the block. As you are well aware, I’m no stranger to gourmet burgers. Both the late great Feenie Burger and it’s less decadent replacement, the dB Burger have fallen victim to my voracious appetite.

Fraiche Restaurant’s take on the gourmet burger starts with an 8oz organic beef patty. They then add truffle pecorino, foie gras butter, caramelized onions to the mixed followed by pancetta, and a side of house-made fries with sea salt. Without the Foie Gras or the Poutine Fries, it clearly isn’t as decadent as the late great Feeenie Burger, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Since we never do anything normal, I ended up ordering three of them, making it into a Fraiche Restaurant Full Sized Slider Challenge! Check out the video below to see me take down three of Fraiche’s finest!

As many of you are aware John Chow likes to bet and win and he bet me that I couldn’t eat all three burgers which was the original challenge. After realizing how stupid that was, he said I had to eat a side of fries, which I was OK with. The chefs put more than THREE sides of fries on that plate as you can see in relation to the single order picture above. The extra fries were purely for bragging rights and you always order your sliders with a side of fries. He did everything possible to stop me by trying to add more fries to my plate. Luckily there were witnesses, his ruse was stopped cold and he was forced to pay up.

This was definitely one of the tastiest challenges I’ve undertaken. Even though I went as fast as I could, I could really taste how fresh the ingredients were. The flavours really popped. The only thing I would have changed were the fries. They were a little too salty for my tastes and could have used a little less time in the fryer for a bit more tenderness in the middle. The staff there were so amused by this they started taking pictures. Hopefully you’ll see them on their Facebook Page really soon.

So in the battle of Stephen Fung vs. The Fraiche Restaurant Full Sized Slider Challenge, Stephen WINS!

More pics by Ed “Lazy” Lau after the break…

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Stephen Fung vs. Pho Garden’s Giant Pho Challenge

Somewhere in San Francisco there is a place that serves what could very well be the BIGGEST PHO in the world and this place is called Pho Garden. This eatery kicked off my US tour of three places that I wanted to hit during my road trip to the US. They included Iguana’s Tacqueria for the Burritozilla Challenge, Beth’s Cafe and their 12 Egg Southwestern Exposure Omelet Challenge and of course the Pho Challenge!

As you might have figured out, I kind of posted my challenges out of order. This one was my biggest disappointment because it was the one I was looking forward to the most. Ever since I found out about this challenge, I wanted to do it, not only for myself, but for the pride of Dot Com Pho. What says Pho more than a bowl that is nearly two feet wide, filled with 2 lbs of meat and 2 lbs of noodles?

Of all of the Dot Com Pho Gang, it’s clear that I was the only logical choice to take on and defeat this challenge due to the fact that I have this tendency to finish things like the Kam Do Mixed Grill and have a reputation for eating massive hamburgers. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, my inexperience at this type of gargantuan challenge put me at a disadvantage. I did not have my strategy in place and I did not follow my instinct which was to attack hard and fast; a tactic that led to my success in Seattle at Beth’s Cafe with a massive 12 egg omelet.

Despite the disappointment that this challenge represented, this also is a reminder that I do learn quickly and that experience is everything. Enjoy the video!

You’ll find more pictures from the infamous Pho Garden Pho Challenge after the jump. Stay tuned for more food adventures coming up soon!

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Stephen Fung vs. Beth’s Southwestern Exposure 12 Egg Omelet!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That pretty much described my crazy foodie challenges while I enjoyed my time down in California and the Bay Area. The first challenge which was San Francisco’s Pho Garden’s Pho Challenge, a massive bowl of Pho consisting of 2 lbs of meat and 2 lbs of noodles, left me demoralized and quite full for most of the day. However, I fought back and put a big dent into that massive Pho, but it wasn’t enough to clean the bowl (video coming soon).

The very next day, after somehow being able to digest that huge Pho, I went to Iguanas Tacqueria in San Jose where I attempted my challenge against the infamous Burritozilla. It’s a challenge so horrible that Adam Richman walked away from it during his San Jose visit and had World Competitive Eating Champion, and San Jose native, Joey Chestnut take it on instead. I again tried and failed. Sigh.

Some say that that the third time is a charm. Of course, others say that three strikes and you’re out or that terrible things come in threes. Well, I decided to try one last time in Seattle by taking on Beth’s Southwestern Exposure 12 Egg Omelet!

Located in Seattle, Washington, Beth’s Cafe has been serving the area for 55 glorious glutinous years! The portions are big, the place has character, and the customer submitted artwork is interesting. However, I had no time to draw a pretty picture and instead got down to the ugly task of taking down this same challenge that downed our Man vs. Food Hero, Adam Richman.

Do I triumph? Or do I crash and burn for a three straight consecutive loss? Check out the video!

After two failed attempts on two of the planets most infamous and challenging monster food challenges, Beth’s Southwestern Exposure 12 Egg Omelet fell and I can finally say that in the battle of Stephen vs. Food, Stephen WON!

If you want to see the challenge that inspired my latest win, the Pho Garden’s Pho Challenge, stay tuned as I’ll be putting that up over the weekend.