Are Travel Writers the Next Great Competitive Eaters?

Travel Blog  •  David Farley  •  01.12.09 | 10:54 AM ET

Matt Gross, Frugal TravelerMatt Gross. Photo by Jean Liu.

I once wrote a story about taking a competitive eater out to three buffet lunches in as many days to see how much he could eat. At the Indian buffet, 400-pound Eric “Badlands” Booker (then the third-ranked competitive eater in the world) proved he was born to indulge. By the 12th trip up to the buffet (I’m not kidding), the restaurant manager pointed out the dessert options, a subtle suggestion that it was time to retire his fork for the day. “Just for that,” Badlands said to me, “I’m going up for more after I finish this plate!”

At the all-you-can-eat sushi the next day, he consumed so much food we had a crowd around our table watching as he put the plate to his mouth and scooped the fish with his chopsticks right down his throat. At the Brazilian steakhouse the final day, Badlands received handshakes form the waiters for his eating prowess.

But I didn’t really know gluttony until a recent outing with writer Matt Gross.

The Writer-Sometimes-Known-As-The-Frugal-Traveler was writing a food story about a Brooklyn neighborhood. We started off at an ancient diner scarfing down burgers and fries. Afterward I turned toward the subway station and Matt gave me a WTF look. Apparently we weren’t done. A few minutes later we were in a Lebanese joint, veal-tongue-stuffed pitas in our hands and bowls of tabbouleh and other delights spread out in front of us. Then he pulled me into a taqueria for tacos loaded with more strange animal parts (Matt was overjoyed with the pork skin tacos). By the time we got to the schnitzel at the German beerhouse, four lunches and three hours later, I felt like a punch drunk competitive eater myself. Matt and I parted ways and he—like the iron stomach that he is—got on a subway headed for Chinatown to buy food for that night’s dinner.

Which is why I’m glad Gross took his dad on his latest eating venture. In the current issue of Arrive—Amtrak’s surprisingly well-done on-train magazine—Gross travels to an unlikely food destination in search of a good meal: Bridgeport, Conn. He drags his poor dad in and out of restaurants for a day-long food fest and finds that the eating—particularly of the ethnic variety—isn’t so bad in Bridgeport. His dad now knows the truth about travel writers: when they invite you to lunch for a story they’re writing, just say no.

Tags: Budget Travel, Food, Media Addict, Train Travel, North America, United States, Connecticut, New York, New York City, News and Briefs


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