'I tried burrito challenge no one's ever completed – surprising bit was hardest'

Daily Mirror

4 hours ago

A woman who took on an undefeated mammoth food challenge has said there was one part of the challenge she didn't anticipate struggling with - and it made her lose precious time
Food challenges are not for the faint-hearted, and there's a reason so many of them go undefeated for so long. If you've ever been to an independent cafe or restaurant, you might have seen a food challenge on their menu. These are huge plates of food that often come with a time limit and are designed to be almost impossible for one person to eat.
Winning a food challenge usually means getting your name put on the restaurant's wall and getting your meal for free, although some places may throw in extra goodies as well. TV shows like Man v. Food popularised the challenges, and while some restaurants in the UK do have them, they're more common in places like the US.
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But one woman who recently took on an undefeated food challenge has said there was a surprising part of the meal that she struggled with - and it wasn't the food itself.
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Katina DeJarnett, known online as Katina Eats Kilos, is a professional eater who visits restaurants all over the US to conquer their food challenges. In one recent video shared to TikTok, she went to a restaurant called Las Fresas Mexican Grill in Van Buren, Arkansas, to take on a challenge no one has ever managed to complete.
The challenge consisted of a 32-inch "monster burrito," which weighed a colossal 8 lbs (3.6kg) and was packed with steak, chicken, and chorizo, as well as 1 lb (453g) of rice, 1 lb (453g) of refried beans, and a staggering 2 lbs (907g) of French fries.
But that's not all. The burrito was then topped with around six cooked shrimps, and came with three dipping sauces (queso, chilli Colorado and chilli verde) that Katina had to use in order to complete the challenge.
She said: "I have 45 minutes to finish all of this in order to win my meal for free, get myself a groovy T-shirt, and the very first spot up on the wall of fame here at Las Fresas."
Katina started by demolishing the shrimp that were placed on top of her burrito, before moving onto the main bulk of the challenge. She cut her mammoth dish into four pieces and began by eating the two ends, which she topped with the chilli verde sauce to polish off the bowl.
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But surprisingly, the part Katina found the hardest about the entire challenge was the chilli Colorado sauce. She claimed that while it didn't seem spicy at first, the heat "built up" over time and soon had her struggling.
She explained: "My strategy with the sauces was to start with the chilli verde and then move on to what I assumed would be the super spicy salsa, I believe it was chilli Colorado, next. Then I could move on to the queso to dampen the heat if it was too spicy for me."
On her first mouthful of the chilli sauce, she declared it wasn't "too bad," but she quickly found out that she had underestimated the slow burn. She soon regretted her words - even though she believed it was "pretty mild."
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In a voiceover, she declared: "The heat from this one did actually end up building up over time, but if I could handle it, I think it was a pretty mild sauce and most people would be okay eating it."
With her lips "on fire," Katina powered through and finished the chilli Colorado sauce along with her third chunk of burrito, leaving just one section on her plate.
A time-lapse showed her devouring the final section along with all the queso sauce. Although she struggled at times and had to convince herself she was just eating "cheesy broccoli soup," she eventually managed to finish the challenge and stop the clock, finishing the challenge in just 29 minutes.
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At the end of her video, she said: "That was delicious, but thank god I'm done. I gotta say, I was not confident going into that one, but I'm feeling confident now. And a little bit bloated. 29 minutes and one second."
Commenters on the video congratulated Katina on her ability to finish the challenge, as some said the restaurant's addition of the sauces was "diabolical".
One person said: "I can't understand how that call fit in someone's stomach." Another added: "As someone who just gave birth to an 8lb baby ... oh my god girl!"
While someone else wrote: "Making you finish the sauces is diabolical."