This past Saturday during our regular DotComPho time, we decided to change venues. But this new venue had a food challenge. Of course, being the one who tackled the 12 Egg Omelet, 4 lb Bowl of Pho, and Burritozilla, I stepped up to the plate to take on Hogshack’s Flatline Burger Challenge; a monster two patty double burger topped with two individual grilled cheese sandwhiches that replace your standard garden variety buns. If your maths are up to snuff, that’s four slices of thick bread and cheddar cheese inside. Add to that two more slices of cheese to cover the individual patties, special home made mayo, four thick cut tomato slices and romaine lettuce and you have a very tall order. Oh…one more thing…

The challenge dictates that you need to take a side dish. That could be their awesome hand cut fries or a garden or caesar salad. But the kicker of this challenge is time: 5 minutes is all you get to complete this meal. If you take it all down in the challenge time, you get it for free!

What The Hell Is a Hog Shack Cookhouse?

Richmond, BC is better known locally for its mainly Chinese population, bad drivers (most of which bribed for the licenses), and some of the best Asian cuisine in North America. But just outside of the city lies the small seaside village of Steveston. Though more known for its fresh seafood, Hog Shack Cookhouse is definitely something different and something good different at that. In fact, they are the first and only BBQ Cookhouse in the Steveston area. I mean, who doesn’t like BBQ?

The Hog Shack sits in what used to be a Greek Restaurant known as Correlli’s. The owners bought the the place and installed cooker out back and the rest is history. But remnants of the past still remain as the original owner still works there as part of the wait staff.

Menu wise, the Hog Shack has all the great BBQ goods like brisket, sausage, pulled pork, ribs, you name it. But they also pay homage to the excellent local seafood by including some great Southern inspired dishes as well as some great takes on classics like fish and chips. However, today we weren’t here for that because we had come to take on their Flat Line Burger Challenge!

On Your Marks! Get Set… EAT!

Unfortunately, the greens weren’t the moist iceberg lettuce variety so there was no moistness to be had. The dry greens needed dressing and I only had 5 minutes. See the whole thing to down below…

UPDATE: Stacey from Metro Van Food also made a video for us to gawk at. Check it out below…

Trying to take down the tomatoes at the beginning caused a bit of a delay and I was too exuberant with the patties, causing a backup in the pipe. Going back and doing this all over again, I would have definitely folded the patties and left the ruffage for last. Assuming I pass the hurdle of the burger itself, I would have chosen fries instead because in terms of speed, it would have been faster to attack them versus trying to chew dry greens. Not to mention, win or lose, Fries are much tastier at the end of the day.

Thanks Hog Shack Cookhouse for your encouragement. I will indeed be back to claim my place at the Flat Line Challenge 2011 Competition on Canada Day!

If you think he’s relaxing and soothing in a video, wait till you get the real deal in person. What? You mean you’re giving away one Stephen? That’s right! This month I’m giving away my beloved Flip Flap to ONE lucky person. Oh, and I’m giving away one of those iPod nano doodads too to another reader. If you want to be the new owner of Flip Flap, because owning Flip Flap is FTW, then enter today. You only have till July 1st, 2008!

In order to up my game, I changed the software I used and switched to the totally unfamiliar iMovie HD. Though more powerful, I found it quite a bit more difficult to use versus iMovie 08 so I had to fiddle quite a bit with it. In the end, the software is quite a bit more powerful, although I personally think iMovie 08 has the potential to be better with new plugins down the road.

So what’s your favourite Dot Com Pho Crew up to this week? Tune in with John Chow, Michael Kwan, Greg Morgan, Gary Ng and me to find out!  To kick things off, hot off the YouTubes, is my version of the Dot Com Pho – Flip Flap Edition…

For a different point of view altogether, here is John Chow’s Flip Flap Edition. Same day, same people, but totally different editing…

So do I get a break next week? Or do you want me to keep going until I get sick of it? Only you can decide!

Oh…and One More Thing…

As an incentive, I’m going to use this opportunity to start a new contest!

If you leave your comment on this post about who should live to edit another day, I’ll enter you into a draw for an “UNBRANDED” iPod nano 4GB Silver that I won at the ZOTAC Party! Unlike the one that Market Leverage is giving away through John Chow this month, this iPod nano is free from any branding nonsense so that you can enjoy it as you please and if you are Chinese, you can even re-gift it properly because it doesn’t have your blog name or Market Leverage’s name on it. Yay!

To increase your chances of winning, you will get one additional entry if you provide another unique comment on my video’s YouTube Page and if you blog about this contest and leave a trackback, you’ll receive another FIVE entries just because I said so for a total of SEVEN lucky entries! WOW! If your trackback doesn’t show, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments on this post.

To sweeten the pot further, everyone that participates in any of the aforementioned methods will be entered once to win my beloved “Flip Flap” because it’s “Flip Flap” FTW! Market Leverage doesn’t have one. John Chow doesn’t have one. But I have one and it could be yours! Contest closes July 1st on Canada’s Birthday and is open to anywhere that snail mail goes.

Good luck and Have Fun!

UPDATE: Congratulations to the winners! Check this post to see if it is you!

This week marks the final episode of Futurelooks Eight Crazy Weeks of Giveaways. Backed up by Samsung Canada, Futurelooks will be giving away a Samsung 206BW 20 Inch LCD Monitor and a Samsung YP-K5 4GB MP3 Audio Player.  The Samsung monitor won Futurelooks’ Editors’ Choice Award and is highly prized by its many owners for its great looks and excellent picture quality.  The YP-K5 has a really cool trick if you check out the Final Week Contest Page. Don’t worry, the player we are giving away is NOT the same one in the video.  It’s also one of few MP3 players out on the market that has built in stereo speakers while being no bigger than a small cellphone.  It also don’t sound half bad for pint sized speakers.

Because it is the final segment of the eight week contest, we’ve extended the entry date till December 16th, 2007.  To get entered to win, go check out the Final Week Contest Page.

When it comes to contests, the only thing that is worth anything at the end of the day is a product you can hold in your hand and tell people about. For Eight Crazy Weeks, I’ve been helping to give away some pretty darn cool products.  Some of them, like the computer cases, are too large to hold in your hands which is OK because everyone loves getting a huge honking box in the mail.  Well, let the giving continue!

Futurelooks has just launched Week Seven of Eight Crazy Weeks of Giveaways.  This week up for grabs is an LG DVD Player, X-Arcade Retro Gaming Trackball Controller, and a copy of Lord of the Rings Trilogy Special Edition on DVD. Any one of these prizes would be perfect for regifting to someone you love…not that you would do that.  Don’t forget to enter the BONUS DRAW as well too.  For more information on how to win this week, you can check out the Official Week Seven Contest Page.