Flyin' Hawaiian (Part 3)

(UPDATE February 2013: After moving back to the Carts on Foster pod for a few months, Flyin' Hawaiian is now just doing catering and a few lunch services at places like Nike and Intel. Check their Facebook page for the latest!)

(Food Carts Portland article -- 1/12/12)
(Original Review -- January 2012)
(Second Review -- February 2012)

At the end of April, Flyin' Hawaiian joined several food carts in making the move to the re-opening Green Castle Food Pod on NE 20th and Everett in Portland, Oregon. With the grand opening slated for May 19, it seemed perfect to construct a food challenge for this cart.

Flyin' Hawaiian was at the Green Castle food pod until mid-October 2012

I soon discovered that Jason and Rusty had been wanting to plan their own challenge for a while, so it was the ideal meeting of the minds. Of course, it would need to be a spicy challenge -- of spicochistic proportions.

Jason and I spent some time putting the pieces together for this spicochist challenge. Fire chicken, kalua pork with fire sauce, spam in fire sauce, and eggs. Heck, even the scoop rice and scoop of mac salad would get habanero powder. We added a sweet roll as well (no heat added...yay?).

Our original Spicochist Challenge ideas

What's in fire sauce? The gamut of Dave's Insanity sauces, their pineapple habanero sauce, some sambal, and habanero powder. Honestly, getting to record Jason's reaction to the fire sauce fumes was worth the cost.

It looks like marinara sauce, but sure doesn't taste or smell like it!

This picture says it all
Jason is suffering...and I like it!
Vintage sadistic spicy panda!

When I beta tested it, it was a 4-pound kanak attack waiting to happen; we had also added a pork cutlet sandwich with...more fire sauce in it. I had an hour to do it.

I'm a moron

I flew out of the gates to attack the kalua pork and chicken. I mixed in bites of everything, sipping my Powerade Zero (yay mixed berry flavor!). Although I had the usual runny nose and facial sweat combo from eating spicy food, my mouth really didn't feel much. Odd how that happens.

I underestimated the heaviness of all the challenge components and basically hit an impenetrable food wall with about 30-35 minutes remaining. I likely made a huge mistake by not tackling the pork cutlet sandwich at the start. Just so heavy -- and the pork cutlet may get drier and tougher to eat as time passes.

EDIT: Here's the video of my attempt! ("Spicochist v. Fiery Feast at Flyin' Hawaiian")

A good effort, but still disappointing

After my unfortunate loss, we lowered the poundage on the challenge to ~3 lbs. It'll be $35 for the revamped "Spicochist Challenge, presented by Flyin' Hawaiian." No dairy products allowed, but otherwise you can drink whatever you want. Winners only pay $20, get a free T-shirt, and go on the Wall of Fame. To compensate for the smaller portion, you'll have less time (45 minutes) to eat everything. As of right now (still subject to change), the challenge has:

3/4 lb kalua pork (with "fire" sauce on it)
3/4 lb "fire" chicken
3 pieces of "fire" spam
3 eggs
1 scoop rice and 1 scoop mac salad -- with habanero powder on top
1 sweet roll

Revising the Spicochist Challenge for the public

Comparing the original (right) to the revised challenge (left side)

Outstanding food, as usual. I finally got to eat their kalua pork, and man, give me that in fire sauce any day. I always test the mac salad for that true taste of Hawaii, and this version was a huge winner.

I won't lie, this challenge produced spicy aftereffects the following morning. So that everything's out in the open, I refrained from any Pepto/Tums before or after the challenge. Having that on hand probably could have prevented or lessened such evil sensations.

It looks like they will get a lot of business at the Green Castle pod. Just a great location, with a bunch of foot traffic!

Be sure to check out Flyin' Hawaiian's Facebook page! They may have Loco Moco weekend specials and poke in the coming weeks. Yet another elite food cart! The panda's dancing...albeit very gingerly. 9/10