The Big-Food Hall of Fame

Yeah, we know, Americans are getting bigger and restaurant portions are partly to blame. But we still stand in awe of these eight purveyors of really giant eats.

By Bret Stetka for MSN City Guides

Judging by our shameless obsession with SUVs, plasma screens and bulky trips to Costco, Americans just can't get enough of big. And nowhere is this more evident than in our food.

Now, I'm not talking about gargantuan Guinness Record holders that were only prepared once. Nor the super-sized fast food phenomenon and its untoward effects on public health—that’s an altogether more serious matter. I'm instead talking about those playful attempts at shock and awe meant for only occasional, celebratory or multi-party indulging that can actually be ordered off a menu. Numerous restaurants around the country offer such over-sized belly bombs, and below are eight big foods worth loosening your belt for.

Clearfield, Penn.: Denny's Beer Barrel Pub
1452 Woodland Road
(814) 765-7190

Assembling the country's largest commercially available hamburger is a tumultuous endeavor requiring competitive dedication, impeccable grilling skills and lots of ground beef. In 1998, Denny's Beer Barrel Pub brought this coveted title home to Central Pennsylvania with its respectable six-pound offering. Then in 2005, the Clinton Station Diner in Clinton, New Jersey, trumped Denny's with their 12.5-pound "Zeus" burger, only to be outdone one year later by the build-your-own-burger chain Fuddrucker's, which grilled up a 29-pounder.

Well, to the delight of Pennsylvanians everywhere, this year Denny's reclaimed the record with their mammoth 123-pound Main Event Charity Burger! Here's the breakdown: an 80-pound beef patty, a 30-pound bun, 160 slices of cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo, and—to assuage any nutritional guilt—a pound of lettuce and 12 tomatoes. Outstanding.

New York: Carnegie Deli
854 Seventh Ave.
(800) 334-5606

No list of big foods would be complete without a stop at the country's most famous delicatessen, the Carnegie Deli. This Manhattan institution was founded in 1937 and has come to represent the classic kosher-style deli, so synonymous with the New York City experience. Carnegie serves traditional Jewish deli fare like gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup and tongue, but is best known for their gargantuan cold-cut sandwiches.

Their best-known offering is likely the "Woody Allen," loaded with "lotsa corned beef plus lotsa pastrami," but their heartiest sandwich is definitely Number 13—or "Jeff's Tatalah." This meaty monolith is piled to the ceiling with three pounds of turkey, corned beef and Swiss and served on pumpernickel with cole slaw and Russian dressing—trust me when I say fitting your mouth around it is physically impossible.

The servers at Carnegie can be gruff and confrontational, which may or may not be hammed up so the perpetual gaggle of tourists can experience stereotyped New York. But once through the line, take a seat and attempt to conquer the massive mound of meat before you.

Round Rock, Texas: Lone Star Bakery/Round Rock Donuts
106 W Liberty St.
(512) 255-3629

Thanks to a wave of Eastern European immigration in the late 1800s, Texas has one of richest doughnut traditions in the country. So much so that there’s even a doughnut variety named after the Lone Star State, termed the "Texas doughnut." This eponymous designation is widely accepted in the doughnut community as referring to an oversized raised glazed, and no one fries them better than Round Rock Donuts. In all my years of doughnut fanaticism I've never encountered a Texas doughnut this big; though dimensions vary due to RR’s practice of hand cutting, their average Texas is an astounding 15 inches in diameter! It's more like a planetary ring than a baked good.

Denver: Beau Jo’s Pizza
2710 S. Colorado Blvd.
(303) 758-1519
(plus other locations)

Shed any New York or Chicago-based expectations and try a quintessential Colorado pizza, an oxymoronical title in the eyes of pizza purists I’m sure. This local pizza chain specializes in what they call “Mountain Pies,” thick and doughy creations heaped with quality ingredients and no doubt inspired by Colorado’s mighty landscape. Beau Jo’s most mountain-y offering of all is its “Challenge Pizza,” an enormous version of their Grand Sicilian. The Challenge pie consists of a 16-inch crust topped with hamburger, sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and cheese. Finish the whole thing and you’ll be exactly 14 pounds heavier.

Mountain View, Calif.: La Costeña
2078 Old Middlefield Way
(650) 967-0507

With the help of the burrito experts at Burritophile, I've tracked down the largest burrito I could find in which flavor wasn't compromised for stature. The winner comes from La Costeña in Mountain View, California. This hole-in-the-wall (I mean this in a good way) is located in the back of a grocery store and not only sells hundreds of their hefty super burritos daily (pictured) at less than $10 a piece, but takes it one step further and uses a row of overlapped tortillas to create the four-foot long Burrito Gigante. Such a hearty demonstration of burrito prowess will run you $60 and can be stuffed with a wide assortment of fillings like pollo borracho (chicken stewed in beer), carnitas chiconcoac (pork backs simmered in soy sauce, orange rind, lemon sugar), and tiger shrimp. Incidentally, La Costeña holds the Guinness Record for making the world's largest burrito, a 4,456.3 pound monster measuring in at 3,578 feet long! Unfortunately this one's not on the menu.

Bret Stetka is a science and medical writer in Brooklyn, N.Y., who also happens to be obsessed with food.