For people who like to eat their food in record time, there are a couple places in town with special challenges, including The Rock Restaurant in Uptown Normal.

The Rock Restaurant sells Mediterranean and American dishes. 

One of the Mediterranean items is a gyro, which is spiced meat that has been cooked on a vertical spit and served with toppings in pita bread.

The Rock also sells traditional hamburgers and cheeseburgers. 

The item on the menu named the Challenger is a mix of both gyro meat and cheeseburgers.

This mega-meal is composed of three half-pound burger patties, each topped with gyro meat, and has all the fixing of a regular cheeseburger. 

In order for contestants who attempt the Challenger to get their picture put on the wall, he or she must eat the entire thing and beat the fastest time, which right now is 4:04 minutes.

“It’s not a competition. You can walk in any time any day and we will time it. If you beat the time then you get your photo taken and we’ll post it on the wall,” Said Saliba, owner of The Rock Restaurant, said. 

Close to 50 people have attempted the Challenger at the new store in the past year and a half. 

Amanda Carlson / Daily Vidette Senior Staff: Michael McGovern, junior secondary math education major, eats at The Rock Restaurant Thursday afternoon, located in Uptown Normal. The Rock Restaurant is most popular for their Mediterranean and American style food.

“Before they do it, they have to sign a waiver to be on the safe side when there is this much meat being consumed in a little amount of time,” Saliba said.

The Rock has other items on their “super menu” that do not have to be completed as fast as possible. Many of them are American dishes like mozzarella sticks, French fries, hot dogs and chicken fingers. They also have a new veggie and gluten-free menu.

Their Mediterranean dishes include falafel, hummus, grape leaves and baba ghanoush. They sell baklava, ladyfingers, maamoul and namoura for dessert. 

They also have buffalo wings on the menu. Speaking of buffalo wings, Buffalo Wild Wings has a challenge, too. The Blazin’ Wing Challenge is for people who love spicy food and should not be taken lightly. 

The contestant gets 12 chicken wings that have been slathered in their signature Blazin’ sauce, which is about 300,000 Scoville Heat Units — about 70 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper. The label on the bottle even says to keep the sauce away from eyes, children and pets. 

The contestant must finish all the wings in less than six minutes. Anyone attempting this challenge must also sign a waiver.

Malcolm Bedell, Blazin’ Wing Challenge champion gives us more specific rules. “During the six-minute challenge, you can’t have anything to drink. You can’t use any dipping sauces. You can’t use a napkin. You can’t use anything but your mouth to strip meat from the bone. And you can’t touch your face,” he said.

Bedell completed the challenge in 4:06 and received a chemical burn on his thumb from touching the sauce.

“Things went smoothly until about my sixth wing; the sauce is spicy, for sure. I hit a wall at around my eighth wing; my face turned red, my lips began to swell, and my eyes opened up and began spilling down my cheeks,” Bedell said. 

People who complete the challenge get a tee shirt and a teary eyed photo taken of them to be hung on the Wall of Fame.

Whether it is a lot of meat or a lot of spice, there is a challenge for those people who cannot get enough “Man vs. Food.”