They Did It!

As always, you need the back story on this one!

Almost a year ago, a guy named Adam Rich, who has a show called Man Vs. Food on either the Food Network or Travel Channel, was in Charleston to complete the spicy sushi roll challenge at Bushido. There are ten levels of hand sushi rolls you must eat, each hotter than the one before. Just before watching the show, we learned that quite a few of our neighbors had completed the challenge or were in the middle of doing it. Of course, Jasen decided he MUST do it, too.

With our move coming closer, Jasen decided he needed to start and finish the challenge NOW. Trip #1 to Bushido, Jasen ate levels 1-5. He said they weren't that bad, but that 5 definitely had a kick to it. Next trip to Bushido, he did levels 6 and 7, which he didn't particularly enjoy, but he got them accomplished. Trip #3 to Bushido, Jasen took Grace with him, got her some fries, while he ate levels 8 and 9, which were not nice to him. I don't know that I ever asked him how they tasted. I just know that he had chills all night long and a stomach that made noises and movements that probably shouldn't be remembered. It was not good.

So all he had left was #10. Of course, we wanted it to be an EVENT, so we planned on the whole family going, along with a couple of our neighbors and friends. One of our friends in the neighborhood, Johnny, completed levels 1-9 pretty quickly, but had been stalling on #10. Now, I don't really know that he was stalling, but all the other men in the neighborhood accused poor Johnny of that. It was decided by all the men in the neighborhood that, when Jasen went to do #10, Johnny needed to do it, too.

Saturday night, the time had come to kick some Bushido booty! We gathered up our kids, Johnny and Brandy got their precious Addelyn ready, and we met them and our neighbors Hunter and Eric at Bushido. We all had sake (love the green apple sake!) and sushi, except for our kids, who had the BEST pb'n'j EVER (Grace's words, of course!), and the guys ordered #10 to be brought out right before we were leaving.

When we were all done with our real meal and the guys had plenty of water available, the eating began. Hunter played "The Eye of the Tiger" on his IPhone. People who were leaving stopped to watch them do it. And Johnny and Jasen? They ate their #10 hand roll in two bites. Now, a hand roll isn't your little half-dollar sized sushi bite. It's a big ole seaweed roll with lots of fish hanging out. Jasen and Johnny had already decided that they needed to get the fat end in their mouths without the fish actually touching their lips because it would burn too bad. I couldn't believe they accomplished that, but they did.

Johnny was done first. Jasen was actually chewing so it took him a little longer. Let me assure you, there were not enough napkins!

After they were done, they downed water and we got Jasen some milk. Johnny is lactose-intolerant so he couldn't have any; poor guy! Brandy even offered to go get him some soy milk at the Food Lion nearby.In the end, they weren't in too bad shape. We didn't have to run out of the restaurant toward Evening Shade Drive. Jasen's tummy wasn't great the next day, but he said it wasn't as bad as after 8 and 9. Thank goodness! Here they are, all done. Never to have to eat one of those things again!

Sadly, the night we were there, they were out of their Bushido headbands so Jasen was bummed he didn't get his. Thankfully, it came in the mail today. I knew you'd want to see it! Say "Bushido!"