Champocalypse

Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam has quite the deal for anyone wanting or willing to take gluttony by the horns and ride it.  The Intercontinental Hotel has a Sunday brunch with a food spread that takes buffets to a whole new level and... all-you-can-drink Veuve Clicquot champagne.  Guess how much this will set you back?

$45.  One bottle of Veuve costs more than that in the US.  Epic gastronomic WIN.

Dan, Courtney, Ben, and I descended upon the Intercontinental before the brunch was even officially open.  We were ready to put our internal organs to the test.  A number of beautiful things happened over the next 3.5 hours:

1.  Sinful, massive consumption.

Among the four of us, we consumed 11 lobsters, 1/2 dozen raw oysters, 4 tablespoons of caviar, approximately 1/2 pound of sushi, 8 Peking duck rolls, bacon, bacon-covered chocolate (not chocolate-covered bacon), all manner of cheeses, and approximately 6 bottles of Veuve.  Among other things that I couldn't remember.  I think Dan may have had some chicken somewhere in there in his continuing quest for revenge against the feathery cluckers.

2.  Brilliant bouts of creativity.

Dan put on his virtual chef hat and decided that chocolate from the chocolate fountain topped with bacon and chili salt was a good idea.  He was right.  Derricious!

Courtney and I decided to put the "k" in "klass" and began talking in accents.  Courtney sported a French accent and did nothing but make fun of 'ze Belgians.

I took on a Queens accent and made fun of everyone.

And finally, Ben revealed his idea for a new blog:  I Went Somewhere, It Was Awesome, I Got Drunk.  However, Ben readily admitted that he's simply to lazy to start and maintain such an endeavor.  But based on his description, it would look something like this:

I went somewhere.

It was awesome.

I got drunk.

Ben, I hope you pick it up from here.

Our creative streak did not end there, though.  By the time we gave up on stuffing anything further down our gullets, Courtney had aptly named our afternoon meat- and bubbly-centric venture - Champocalypse.   Was this a "Vietnamese" thing to do?  Aside from the rock-bottom price reflecting where we were, of course not.  But it was probably the most memorable brunch of my life, and not just because my stomach  spent the next 2 days trying to figure out what it did to deserve such punishment.  So despite the fact that this was not at all an informative cultural experience, it did make me love Vietnam even more.