D'Artagnan's Duckathlon VI (Part Deux)

As promised, the sequel to Wednesday's post.

And the challenges get wackier!

Hogs & Heifers hosted a couple of challenges. One was Duckie Get Your Gun. I ran into the boys from Daniel again and this water gun challenged seemed more like their style than the blindfolded Three Blind Spice challenge.

The challenge was to get all the duckies across the pink line before the guns ran out of water.

I think these bad boys were trying to extinguish each other's cigarettes but missed...not on purpose of course...no...never...

The other challenge outside of Hogs & Heifers was Sausage Dangler. Yes. Sausage Dangler. (I told you it got wackier.)

The idea was for a team member to put on the above outfit and then another team member help guide via words to get the dangling sausage into the milk pail. The team with the most sausage dips in 30 seconds won. (And I might be wrong on this, but I believe Great Performances, the team in the above pictures, won this challenge!)

WARNING: THE NEXT COUPLE OF IMAGES CONTAIN ANIMAL PARTS

I moved on to find the team from Greene Grape Provisions at the Balls to the Wall Challenge.

And you thought the sausage challenge couldn't be beat on the weirdness scale...

The object of this challenge was to correctly identify the testicles to the correct animal. My favorite quote from this was when a team member ask her fellow team member, "Do lambs have big balls?" (It turns out that they do! See the picture above this one.)

I followed Greene Grape's team to the challenge at Amy's Bread - Bread Archery.

Yes. Archery as in flying through the air.

Yes. In NYC. A baguette flying through the air.

Definitely not the weirdest thing ever seen on a NYC side walk (and what a fun challenge!)

After time was up for all challenges, a party was thrown and winners announced.

While I watched the festivities I met fellow bloggers Cathy from Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen and Mary from The Culinary Librarian. I also finally got to meet Deana, the person responsible for inviting me to all this fun. It was my first time meeting other food bloggers and I was so happy I got to meet such great ones! (I also greatly enjoyed the yummy food and ever flowing wine that was provided. Mmmm!)

I also happened to sit by the Greene Grape team. I hope they didn't think I was stalking them (seeing I had been following them for the past half hour.) They were such a delightful team that I am actually going to trek out to Fort Greene and visit their lovely shop. (Hey! It's a trek from Queens to Brooklyn...trust me.)

And guess what! They ended up winning two of the competitions. Sweet!

I was also happy to see Cercle Rouge win a lot of categories and also they placed 3rd over all! (And don't forget that they also won best costumes.)

The overall winner (and winner for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW) was Team Annisa!

I'm sad I didn't get to see them in action on the "course", but hopefully next year I'll be able to catch all the teams for Duckathlon VII!

Overall it was a wonderful day filled with fun, laughter, and education! Thanks D'Artagnan for hosting such a great event.

And now, dear readers, your intrepid reporter will hang up her hat and head back into the kitchen to produce her normal posts about dessert. Over and out.

D'Artagnan Duckathlon VI (Part 1)

Guess what I was up to on Sunday (besides singing). Nope, baking is not the correct answer. I was invited by Deana from the awesome blog Lost Past Remembered to come check out D'Artagnan's annual Duckathlon - "Half marathon, half duck, and completely insane, the Duckathlon is a culinary obstacle course that runs through the Meatpacking District."

I did as much research as I could on the event and everyone hosting, participating, etc that I could and then set off to the Duckathlon after finishing my church choir gig.

The Duckathlon was happening in and around Chelsea Market. After meeting Lily, one of the head honchos of the event, and receiving all the info I needed to find groups etc, I set off to the nearest station to see what this Duckathlon was all about.

I found the Le Cirque group at the crepe flipping station that was run by All-Clad. (BTW, need to get me a gift? I'll take anything from All-Clad. Thanks.) The object of this challenge was to see how many crepe flips a team could get in a certain time frame. One member would flip it 5 times and pass it to the next member and so on. Guess what! I happened to have watched the winning team in action. Way to go Le Cirque (and I love y'all's restaurant!)

The next group I encountered was doing a challenge very near and dear to my heart. They had to decorate a cookie under a specific time limit. Hello! Cookies...sugar...MESS!

I chased down this Cercle Rouge member and asked to take a picture of her hands (because messy hands = be still my heart.) She told me she spoke French only and so I quickly pointed to my camera and said, "Photo...les mains." She understood right away and smiled this awesome smile and proudly displayed her mess. YAY high school French for not failing me.

By the way, there was a contest for best group costumes...guess who won that...

The next competitive stations that I stopped at were at Dickson's Meats and BuonItalia. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any groups in action for this. Check out the two pictures and try to guess what the challenge was.

Meat Map: Correctly identify cuts of meat to area of cow.

Pasta Pickup: One member takes stick of pasta in mouth and tries to get as many circle pastas with stick and place in the cup within a minute. (Yes, I'm sad I didn't see anyone do this.)

Then I wondered next door where there were TWO challenges at one table and guess what - I got to do the challenges!

At The Filling Station I sampled an infused olive oil and could tell that there was some type of fruit in it, but it would have taken me hours to guess a fig! It was delicious. Also, they let me try the ghost pepper salt and the bacon flavored salt. Yes. Bacon flavored salt. Supposedly it's awesome on an omelet. I thought it was really awesome by itself as well. I will definitely have to go back and get some of their awesome products next time I'm in the area. Plus, their motto is reuse, refill, recycle. What's not to like?

At the same table I got to taste three different types of cheese from Lucy's Whey. I had to identify which one was cow's milk, sheep's milk, and goat's milk and I totally guessed each one correctly! All the types of cheese were delightful. I think I'll make an afternoon of buying cheese from Lucy's Whey and then sit in High Line park this summer while munching on the deliciousness. Mmmm!

After all that fun, I left Chelsea Market and entered Spice Market. I had never been here and was delighted with how beautiful the space is!

I caught up with the boys from Daniel who were busy trying to figure out the last mystery spice.

All were blindfolded and had to figure out 5 different spices via touch, smell, and taste.

The team from Daniel were very thoughtful on their decision. Too bad it wasn't the right one. But that's what makes it a competition! This one was tough!

I also saw the group from Great Performances figure out the first spice.

They worked together well and quickly answered correctly. I later found out that they were one of a few groups to guess the last (and hardest to guess) spice correctly.

After this challenge, I popped back outside and was witness to some of the most unusual food challenges I've ever seen. Stay tuned for part 2!