A few weeks ago, the boss sent me a text about a local food critic that was going to eat a ten-pound taco, or some other such heavyweight nonsense. It always seems as though Oklahoma food writers feel the burning need to turn themselves into a broad culinary joke—because I guess writing about a good (or bad) restaurant just isn’t deathly-extreme enough for their readership—and believe me, it’s something that I’m fully aware I was once guilty of too.
Oklahoma City’s food critics—be it daily paper, alt-weekly, blog or podcast—no longer try to find an eatery to admire and recommend; instead, they’re looking for the next dining freakshow to self-exploit, an upcoming sick gimmick to self-deprecate, or the fart-ready joke for the need to self-flagellate, completely open to a public ready to evenly cheer and jeer—and they’ve found them in this town’s perverse food challenges.