IT weighs about a kilo and said to feed four people but when I asked the lady at the counter how many people have tried to finish it ALONE, she casually said: “Madalas mga tricycle driver po [Often, tricycle drivers can finish it].”

So with tinged (and later on, foolish) pride, I decided to give it a go. That huge chunk of white doesn’t look so imposing from the outside, even though by my estimate it is thrice the size of the biggest you can find at 7-11.

My strategy was to cut it in quarters, confident I can eat what four people can since it was late afternoon when we arrived at PVL Food Haus and I haven’t had lunch yet.

I chose the bola-bola variety — no thanks to my colleague Erwin Oliva who told me it tastes better. See the picture above? Imagine a large chunk of meat plus boiled egg inside it.

I threw in the towel after finishing about three-quarters of it. Until now, my wounded pride still tells me I should have chosen the Asado, half-sure the softer filling would’ve been less cruel to ingest in my mouth.

Don’t ask me if it tastes GOOD — I would say that it isn’t that outstanding. Or that I’d rather eat Hen-Lin’s siopao because it tastes better.

Or better yet, I was too busy thinking how to finish this one huge siopao it didn’t matter much if I actually like it. (Photo courtesy of INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Marjorie Gorospe)

Watch this video and see how long I consumed one.