“Come on, Steph, you can do it! You’re at the home stretch!” My teammates cheer me on, watching and providing moral support (and photo documentation) as I try to power through this feat to reach the finish… The end’s in sight, and I’m hoping that my body doesn’t let me down.. For a brief second I wonder if I should’ve taken up the challenge at all. What started as a random idea (thanks Benny), led to few second thoughts, followed by zero training, as I plopped down on the red vinyl booth to join 3 squad bros in tackling our toughest challenge yet in Cambodia: the Earthquake. No, nothing related to providing earthquake relief to the Khmer people. More like stuffing our faces with 8 scoops of ice cream at Swensen’s (US ice cream chain also found in Cambodia). No sharing, puking, or leaving unfinished dairy behind. My old days and ability of eating like a guy (friends reading this can attest to this), and my instinct to join in as one of the guys w/o thinking anything thru (again, friends can attest) made it easy for me to answer the call and show some team spirit (3 outta 4 of us were Luminati, way to represent!).
Other than keeping down scoops 5 to 6, selecting my flavors was probably the hardest part, ha. Seriously, the flavors you pick really make a difference.. Benny picked the heaviest ones, almost all having large amounts of chocolate. I picked a combo of light and heavy.. and you definitely don’t wanna mix fruity with sweet. for ex: a scoop of lime sherbet followed by cookies and cream wouldn’t be advisable. Also, burping ALWAYS helps.
I suppose there’s some truth to ‘too much of a good thing’. After the initial excitement of EIGHT scoops of ice cream presented in such delicious fashion before you, the different flavors start to taste the same.. you lose track of which is which, as they blend into one big dairy mess in the bowl, and your goal becomes trying to swallow without ruining your affinity for ice cream. However, once the bowls were scraped clean, I physically felt fine – great, in fact. As in, I could’ve ordered another scoop of Rock @ Heart (you learn quickly which ones you like best when you eat 8 scoops in one sitting). In fact, here in Thailand, at the local mall, there’s a Swensen’s… guys, up for Round 2?!
bring it on!
“that’ll be two scoops of cookies & cream, one scoop of mocha chip, one of rock @ heart…” dilemma: wafer or cone??
Lins took this great artsy shot of benny – eyes look ultra blue agst the background… not shown: Benny licking his bowl clean!
Tim was all smiles before.. a few scoops in, he was hurtin’.. but ultimately victorious. note: chocolate aftermath on his tooth
grinning in anticipation – check out the cone art
my chubby cheeks hide the pain.. haha i always have the same cheese face, before and after. at one point, tim made me laugh and i almost hurled… not shown: me eating a piece of Benny’s peeled skin instead of the cherries (there’s a video clip tho..)
Dave’s got a stomach of steel.. and his MO was to eat slowly, savor each scoop, and make observations like “the strawberry cheesecake even has graham cracker bits.. mmm!” while I was just tryin to get by.
Me and Lum guys. Sadly, Tim couldn’t stick around for this photo op, as he booked it to the toilet (jk!) but he did jet as soon as he saw the glass bottom bowl.
Post-Earthquake. Don’t think we even had lunch yet
