Archive for August, 2006
Travel Channel’s 10 best places to pig out
The Travel Channel website has a list of the 10 best restaurants in the United States to pig out. (I think it is a pretty recent list, but I am not sure) There are some expected sites, like the Big Texan Steakhouse and Pointer’s Pizza and some unexpected ones. Not all of the restaurants have eating challenges.
New poll: best eating challenge performance
The new poll asks what you believe the most impressive eating challenge performance of 2005-6 was.
Joe Menchetti to appear on CBS’ Early Show
(from speedeat.com) Joe Menchetti will appear on CBS’ Early Show to promote Frank’s Red Hot wing eating contest to be held at the AVP beach volleyball contest on Coney Island Saturday. The expected time of the appearance is 8:36 am eastern. franksredhot.com has more information about the contest. go-brooklyn.com says the contest will take place at 3pm and registration will occur from 10 am to 11:30 am.
Lynda Kuerth – Trencherwoman of the disco era (Post #1000)
(This is the post with id # 1000. There are actually fewer posts available on this blog due to deletions and cancelations, but I thought it still deserved a more significant entry than just a one sentence post linking to another article.)
If you have a Guinness Book of World Records from the late 1970s or 80s, there are several pages devoted to eating records in it, and in that section, there is probably a picture of Olivet, Michigan native Lynda Kuerth standing over a plate of hot dogs at a contest at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia in 1977. Ms. Kuerth won that event by eating 23 bunless hot dogs in 3 minutes and 10 seconds (at bottom of link). Her victory is mentioned in an article about Sharon Scholten, another female hot dog eating champion. This mark compares reasonably well with current eaters’ results. Humble Bob Shoudt ate 20 bunless hot dogs in 3 minutes and 40 seconds in his successful qualifying stunt for the the 2005 Wing Bowl. It is interesting that a female competitive eater surprised a Philadelphia stadium crowd over a quarter century before Sonya Thomas shocked Wing Bowl 12 spectators at Wachovia Center in 2004.
Lynda Kuerth showed that her talents extended to long duration events when she set the cheesesteak eating record at Jim’s Steaks in Philadelphia by eating 11 sandwiches in 90 minutes in 1978 or 1979. (I am not sure if this record still holds, but it lasted at least two decades if it has been broken. Her trips from Michigan to Philadelphia invalidate Don “Moses” Lerman’s claim that he is the first competitive eater to travel outside his or her home region for contests. Gregg Kirk wrote an article about Jerry Lehane III’s attempt to break Ms. Kuerth’s cheesesteak record (he finished with 7 sandwiches) around 2000 which is not available on the web. The last paragraph offers a description of Lynda and her feats:
In 1978, in an effort to generate publicity for his establishment, [Jim’s Steaks owner] Abner Silver decided to have an eating contest. One night on the news, he saw a human-interest story on Olivet, MI native Lynda Kuerth who had broken the Guiness Book of World Records title for banana split eating. After making a few phone calls to the television station, Abner got in touch with Lynda and agreed to fly her to Philly and give her a place to stay for the competition. That year, Lynda ate 10 1/2 steaks in an hour and a half, and later that year she appeared in Veteran’s Stadium and broke the Guiness Book of World Records in hot dog eating (without the bun). She ate 23 hot dogs in a minute and a half. The next year, she returned to Jim’s to break her own record by eating 11 steaks. No one has been able to come close since. Oh, and how big is Lynda, who now lives a quiet life in Michigan with a husband and two kids? “She was about five ft., eight and about 135 lbs.,” says Abner. “She had an amazing metabolism.”
Heinz says that Nelson Peltz may have won board seats
(from bloomberg.com) Heinz announced that Nelson Peltz, who wants to pay $200,000 to cosponsor Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, may have won one or two seats on its board based on preliminary vote counts. Peltz had hoped to win up to five seats. Full voting results will not be announced until September 15.
Burritos for Life regional winners
The following results were forwarded to me by an eater who wishes to remain nameless and match up with the results on speedeat.com:
REGION 1 DMA – Lubbock, TX
BFL Winner: Bobby Cantu
Winning Time: 3 minutes 41 seconds
REGION 2 DMA – Chattanooga, TN
BFL Winner: Michael Parlaman
Winning Time: 2 minutes 55 seconds
REGION 3 DMA – Columbus, GA
BFL Winner: Aaron Cooper
Winning Time: 3 minutes 35 seconds
REGION 4 DMA – Brunswick, GA
BFL Winner: Mike Shelley
Winning Time: 3 minutes flat
REGION 5 DMA – Philadelphia, PA
BFL Winner: Anthony Rizzo
Winning Time: 3 minutes 5 seconds
UrbanHonking truefan Three Brothers Pizza writeup available
Liz and Krista’s report from the Three Brothers Pizza eating contest has been uploaded to truefan. A flickr gallery of the contest is also available.
Some observations from that writeup:
Juliet Lee claims that she can eat more than Sonya Thomas. Like Sonya, she believes her forte is non bready foods which do not require much chewing.
Pat Bertoletti will appear (or might have appeared already) on “Attack of the Show” on G4/Tech TV sometime this week.
Andrew Lane also competed in the contest and has some reports and pictures on his blog.
Brian Seiken’s video tribute to the “Old School”
Brian Seiken has created a video montage of the eaters who helped make the IFOCE what it is today and posted it on his site.
LA Tofu Festival report
losanjealous has a blog entry about the Los Angeles Tofu Festival, which claims that “the word on the street” is that Jooshin Kim, the executive chef of Koi Restaurant, won the tofu eating contest and a trip to Asia by eating a 14 ounce block of tofu in 25 seconds.
Heinz board vote results not expected at annual meeting
(from Reuters) Heinz announced that it will not announce the results of its voting at its annual meeting today or tomorrow. Nelson Peltz, who wants Heinz to cosponsor Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, is attempting to install 5 new board members. Heinz provided no date when it expected to announce the results.
London Telegraph profile of Sonya Thomas
The London Telegraph has a long profile of Sonya Thomas that includes an account of her appearance at the Asparagus Festival in April. The article implies Sonya won that contest and does not mention that Joey Chestnut was victorious in overtime.
New poll: Most surprising contest performance
The new poll asks what you thought was the most unexpected contest performance of 2005-6.
Burritos for Life second round contest – Greensboro, NC
The Greensboro (NC) News-Record blog has a writeup of the second round Moe’s Burrito for Life contest. One of the contestants was police reporter Eric Townsend
World’s largest hamburger available in Thailand
(from supersizedmeals.com) While the Pattaya, Thailand Nathan’s qualifier was canceled due do bad weather, that city has other claims to competitive eating significance. Bob’s BBQ, owned by an expatriate Texan, has created a 78.6 pound burger, which costs about $400. Jil in Pattaya has a blog entry about the unveiling of the giant sandwich. A contest involving eating 1.5 kg chunks of the burger was held.
speedeat.com returns
Speedeat.com has returned after about a month’s hiatus. Joe Menchetti attended the ribs contest in Fairfield, CT and has a brief report.
Windmill hot dogs & Queens Chinese dumpling results
(From AICE news)
“King” George Van Laar upset Joe Menchetti & Ian Hickman in Windmill hot dogs on Saturday after originally intending to skip the contest due to health reasons:
1. “King” George van Laar, 12.75 hot dogs
2. Ian “the Invader” Hickman, 12.66 hot dogs
3. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti, 11.75 hot dogs
Menchetti rebounded to win the Chinese dumpling eating contest at the Dragon Boat Festival in Queens Sunday:
1. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti 49 dumplings in 2 minutes a new record
2. Ian “the Invader” Hickman, 42 dumplings
3. Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman 39 dumplings, retired from eating after contest
Tang Ta Way, a Queens postal worker, upset Floria Lee in the women’s division of the contest, becoming the second surprise female winner of the weekend.
1. Tang Ta Way, 31 dumplings
2. Floria Lee, 29 dumplings, 4 off last year’s female record
Joey wins CT ribs
from IFOCE.com
Ash Creek Baby Back Rib contest, Fairfield CT
1. Joey Chestnut 6.15 lb in 12 minutes
2. Chip Simpson 5.8 lb
3. Bob Shoudt 5.05
This is probably Joey’s smallest margin of victory over an American since he defeated Sonya in OT at the Asparagus Festival.
Sonya Thomas wins Hong Kong contest
From reuters via Crazy Legs’ Mom & Brian Seiken: Sonya Thomas won the Whampoa Asia Eating Championship by eating 17 Chinese style Lotus seed buns in 12 minutes. Johnny Wu, who finished second in last year’s contest to Takeru Kobayashi, was second with 9 buns. Charles Hardy attended and was listed as Sonya’s publicist.
Updated 4:34 pm – Hong Blog has an eyewitness account of the semifinals
Updated 8/14 12:47 am – pictures of the contest can be seen at Yahoo news
Domenico Alesi’s Illinois horseshoe sandwich results
From a comment by Domenico Alesi
Joey chestnut 1st place 6.5lbs
Tim Eater X Janus 2nd place ??
Tim Brown 3rd place 3.9lbs
Frank Wach 4th place ???lbs5th place 3 way tie 3.2lbs
Bubba yarbrough
Jim Hammer Hamrick
Kevin CarrDomenico the Sicilian Alesi 6th place 2.8lbs
That’s all for now, I am using a phone to type this in so….I am sorry for sloppiness.
7th 8th 9th????
Reversals allowed in Moe’s Burritos for Life
Hollis has a report of the second round Moe’s Burritos for life contest held in Germantown, MS. Gurgitation -> Regurgitation -> Gurgigation is apparently an accepted sequence of actions in the eating tournament.
BeautifulBrian.com: Pat B wins Three Brothers Pizza
from beautifulbrian.com:
Three Bro’s Pizza Results
1. Pat B 19 slices
2. Chip Simpson 17 slices
3. Bob Shoudt 15 slices
4. Larry Mcneill 13 slices
5. Brian Subich 12 slices
6, Allen Goldstein 11 slices
7 Pat Philbin 11
Rest of the field ?????
Each pie based on 8 slice 16” pie
Brian Seiken has also started the fall season of his video podcasts with a show featuring Joe LaRue
(From Luther) Sonya Thomas did not do a hometown contest because she is doing a contest in Hong Kong this weekend (.doc file)
Updated 10:02 pm – steakbellie fan Wendy Scherer attended the contest and wrote a blog entry about it. The winner of the amateur contest was a woman (maybe megamunch’s friend the Pizza Princess”) who ate 11 slices in ten minutes.
Updated 8/13 4:38 pm – The Washington Post has an article with a picture and information about the amateur winner, Juliet Lee, who said she was inspired by Sonya Thomas. Like “The Black Widow”, Ms. Lee is 39 years old and about 5’4″ and 105 lb.
WTOP radio has an AP article about the contest
Updated 8/14 12:45 am – megamunch has a blog entry and gallery of the contest
Updated 8/16 12:40 pm – steakbellie has a blog entry and gallery of the contest
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