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Chrissy Teigen's silently sizing you up, to see if you can hang. She's not going to sugarcoat it or gloss over it; if she's going to let you in on her latest obsession, she's got to make sure you can handle it.
After all, it takes a certain kind of person to knock back a drink and agree to get locked into a small room on any given night. The Cravings cookbook author has done it in Texas, California, New York, and right near the White House, in Washington, DC. And she can't wait to do it again.
Yeah, Teigen's into the weird sh*t.
But before you get all judgy, let her explain. It's not that bizarre, okay?
"I love escape rooms — I've been going to escape rooms across America," she explains. "They're so much fun because you feel really accomplished. You have a cocktail before you go in, but then you go in and kind of make something of yourself."
For the uninitiated, these are the shops — often featured on Groupon, taking over empty rooms in strip malls and corporate buildings — where you agree to be locked in an enclosed space with a group of people, solving riddles and puzzles to eventually unlock the door and rejoin the free world.
She's An Escape Room Champion.
So far, Teigen's four for four, escaping every time — an achievement she doesn't take lightly. Though each room's differed, bringing on a new set of challenges, she's improved her time every single round, escaping with less than 3 minutes to spare the first time. On her most recent trip, she was free by the 45-minute mark.
"I'm good at the weird sh*t. I can find a body that's hidden in the wall, but I can't do math," she says.
Teigen will be perfectly honest; the wins have gone to her head a little bit, especially when it comes to who she invites on these trips.
"Now, every time I go, I'm a bitch about deciding who can go with me, like, 'you, you, not you,'" she laughs. "I'm basically saying, 'you're dumb, you're dumb, you're dumb.'"
There's An Awesome Story Behind Her Go-To Drink.
As much as the Lip Sync Battle host hypes it up, she's not totally ruthless with her friends. Part of the fun of going, she says, is having a round of drinks and letting loose. One of her favorite drinks, lately, is a cocktail inspired by her mom, Vilailuck Teigen, AKA Pepper Thai, AKA @PepperThai2 on Instagram.
"My mom is basically one of the happiest people on the planet ... She is a constant light in our household, and if you watch my Snapchat, you know she basically lives with us," Teigen says. "We love throwing parties and we love entertaining, and we love having a good cocktail."
Teigen incorporated ingredients that remind her of her mom, like Thai holy basil (she has a tree in her backyard) and a strawberry-pepper syrup — light, refreshing, but with a spicy kick, echoing her mom's upbeat-yet-fiery personality. There's also a hearty pour of Smirnoff No. 21 vodka — it is a cocktail, after all, and she is the brand's ambassador — and a splash of club soda. (You can see how it's made in the video above, then try your hand at it using this recipe.)
She's Not Picky About Food Pairings.
Now, say you were hanging out with Teigen, and she was going to make you this cocktail before you proved your worth at an escape room somewhere in the country, what would you eat with it? You wouldn't want to race against time on an empty stomach.
"I always love a good taco platter, I love a burrito — I love a smothered burrito. Shake Shack is always a go-to, Taco Bell, a really good, sloppy lasagna," she says. "It depends on my mood."
Just know that whatever you eat, it can't deter you from the real mission: Making it in and out in less than 45 minutes. She's a woman with goals, people.
"Listen, I didn't go to college," Teigen explains. "I don't have diplomas in anything, but I do have my four escape room diplomas, and I will take that to my grave."
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