The new poll asks how many Nathan’s qualifiers an eater should be allowed to enter a year. There are only about 200 qualifier slots for about 300 million North Americans. One alternative would be to drop qualifiers altogether and give invitations to the top ranked 15-20 eaters.

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Today is the official release date of “Eat This Book” by Ryan Nerz, and Liz has already read it and posted a review.

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The Whaler has returned to shore after three weeks away and he has expressed his ethical philosphospy in poetic form:

If you were to steal my milk and
Use it in your cereal because you had none,
I would steal your cat and
Lock it in my refrigerator.

Go to eaterx.blogspot.com to read the remainder

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Aside from last fall’s “gluttonous monarch” contest, the only other events that “The Gal” has participated in documented on the internet is a series of television appearances from from February and March. Each Wednesday afternoon Nippon TV broadcasted an eating challenge from a different restaurant in which “The Gal” usually competed against Nobuyuki “The Giant” Shirota. Shirota won all of these contests except one, where “The Gal” outate him by 182 items to 173. “The Gal” was generally close in the challenges she lost. If “The Gal” can match the 80%-105% of Shirota’s amounts she obtained in the challenges in Nathan’s, she should be able to eat 30-40 hot dogs (Shirota ate 38 hot dogs in 2004)

The Gal’s TV challenges

Feb 1 13 ft. 11 lb. sushi roll: Shirota 42:50, The Gal 52:45
Feb 8 Yamada 13 bowls, The Gal 12 bowls in 30 minutes- ties Shirota’s previous record
Feb 15 Yamada 190 sushi pieces, The Gal 183 pieces in 30 minutes, both break Shirota’s previous record of 176
Feb 22 The Gal 182 items, Shirota 173 items – items look like hot dog buns but are not disclosed
Mar 1 Shirota 330 strawberries, The Gal 283 strawberries in 30 minutes
Mar 22 Shirota 13 beef bowls, The Gal 11 beef bowls in 30 minutes

(Google translates Shirota as white rice field)

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Krista of Urban Honking takes you on a tour of Crazy Legs Conti’s workplace at the Penthouse Executive Club. Conti works as a buyer at the club and his shift ends before the topless dancers arrive.

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“The Gal” has been crowned the new queen of Japanese competitive eating.

Here are the results of the final rounds of the “Gluttonous Queen of Japan” contest televised on TV Tokyo yesterday obtained from Everyday of the R sea bass gluttony Part 1 (Google Translation) Part 2 (Google Translation) and Much & Fast (Google Translation)

Round 6->5 Sausage 30 minutes

1 35 “The Gal” (曽根奈津子)
2 25 Iwata (岩田ミユキ)
3 24 “The Nurse” (嘉数千恵)
3 24 Tomoko Mikaye (三宅智子)
5 16 Saito (斉藤千恵)
6 15 Ro (若園真由香) eliminated

“The Gal’s” total of 35 sausages matches what Sonya Thomas did in the Sheboygan Bratwurst contest, but Sonya had only 1/3 of the time.

Round 5->4 Rice 30 minutes

1 27 cups “The Gal” (曽根奈津子)
2 26 Iwata (岩田ミユキ)
3 20 Tomoko Mikaye (三宅智子)
3 20 “The Nurse” (嘉数千恵)
5 13 Saito (斉藤千恵)

At the 20 minute mark, Iwata was ahead of “The Gal” by 2 cups, but “The Gal” comes from behind to win this round.

Round 4->3 Shrimp 45 minutes

1 116 shrimp “The Gal” (曽根奈津子)
2 104 “The Nurse” (嘉数千恵)
2t 104 Iwata (岩田ミユキ)
4 90 Tomoko Mikaye (三宅智子)

Iwata and Tomoko Mikaye were neck and neck for the third place spot with Iwata finally avoiding elimination. The Nurse’s strong performance is a considerable surprise of this tournament and marks her as another Japanese female competive eater to pay attention to.

Final Round Chinese noodles 1 hour

Surprisingly there is not a 3->2 round; the winner of the three-woman contest is the overall champion. The results of this round are:

1 22 cups “The Gal” (曽根奈津子)
2 18 Iwata (岩田ミユキ)
3 15 “The Nurse” (嘉数千恵)

“The Gal” wins this round easily and basically coasts from the 45 minute mark, when she had 20 bowls. She spends some of the final 15 minutes fixing her makeup, which Iwata apparently views as taunting. During the post contest handshake, Iwata attacks “The Gal” according to this blog entry (Google translation)

The popularity of “The Gal” has held spur a resurgence in Japanese competitive eating according to this blog entry (Google translation) but it probably has a considerable distance to go to reach the level of popularity it had around the turn of the century. Another “Gluttonous Monarch of Japan” contest open to both genders will apparently be held this fall.

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Hauler has the first report (Google translation) on today’s broadcast of the second elimination round of “The Gluttonous Queen of Japan” Hauler says “The Gal” won, but no other results are listed so it is impossible to tell who was eliminated.

Daybreakforce, a Tomoko Miyake fan, has a preview (Google translation) of today’s contest.

I will post full results here when they are available.

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Joe LaRue won the pancake eating contest at the Maple Festival in Marathon, NY, but failed to break his record from last year, falling short by three pancakes. Video from the contest is available (see link).

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I have been able to track down information about the Japanese television series about female competitive eaters I wrote about earlier this week. The show, Oogui 2006, is broadcast on TV Tokyo and the second episode will be televised Sunday night. (The program debuted on Tuesday.) The program’s home page is http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/oogui2006/ (Google translation) If Japanese competitive eating can command 2 hours of broadcast television in prime time Sunday night, it cannot be doing that badly.

In the contest, seven competitors are chosen from two qualifiers and then a series of contests are held which eliminate the last place finisher until only the champion remains. A similar event open to both genders was held last fall. Three qualifiers in the women’s contest also qualified for the open contest: Miyuki Iwata, Tomoko Mikaye, and Natsuko “The Gal” Sone. I am assuming that no slots in the open contest were reserved for women. Those three are the favorites for the women’s contest. Iwata is generally considered the top Japanese female competitive eater after Takako Akasaka (she lost the 2005 Tokyo Nathan’s qualifier by just one hot dog), but “The Gal” has more “upside” because she is only 19 while Iwata is 32. (I hope to write individual posts about the above three competitors later this week.)

Japanese Blog entries about the contest can be found at: Everyday of the R sea bass gluttony (Google translation) and Much & Fast (Google translation)

Click below for screen captures from the contest and additional information

Read the rest of this entry »

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For the first time in over six months, the IFOCE rankings have been updated. Congratulations to all the newly ranked eaters.

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Tomorrow morning, Joe LaRue will look to better his record of 30 pancakes in 15 minutes at the pancake contest at the Central New York Maple Festival in Marathon, NY.

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Jason Fagone has set up a web site at http://jasonfagone.com/ offering information about his upcoming book, Horsemen of the Esophagus. Fagone will have two book signings in Philadelphia in April and another in New York City in May. He intends to place information on his website that did not make the final revision of the book.

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Two hot dog eating contests will be held this extended weekend. A hot dog eating contest will be held at Green’s Lunch in Charlotte on Saturday at 1 pm in honor of that establisment’s 80th birthday. On Monday, a hot dog eating contest will take place at Mother’s Grille in Baltimore at the conclusion of the Oriole’s season opener. Call the restaurants for contest details.

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There are several upcoming movies about competitive eating in addition to the two books that will be released next month. Two documentaries were filmed at Wing Bowl 13 and a fictional movie about the Wing Bowl is in production. The new poll question ask which of these books/movies are you most eagerly anticipating.

Staying on the topic of competitive eating books, Brian Seiken announces that Ryan Nerz will be holding two book signings in New York City. There will also be a release party for “Eat This Book” at a currently undetermined location and time.

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The New York Times has an article about Saturday’s Edible Book Festival in which Ryan Nerz’s upcoming book gets a brief mention.

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Crazy Legs Conti will compete in a mini-hot dog contest against Dick D. Zigun, founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, during a gala benefit to support Coney Island arts. The event will take place on April 7 at the Crobar. Tickets are $100 and $250. George Shea will announce and officiate the contest. Donors can sponsor either eater by pledging an amount to contribute per hot dog eaten.

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Despite the fall in popularity of Japanese competitive eating, it still apparently commands a prime time audience on broadcast television. In her myspace blog, Jen describes a currently running Japanese television series starring female competitive eaters. An eating contest is held in a different town each week and the food changes with each episode. This week’s contest involved seaweed in Okinawa. The show is like American Idol in that the worst performing competitor gets booted off the show. It would be interesting to see how the winning total in next week’s sausage contest compares to Sonya’s 35 bratwurst in 10 minutes.

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Larry McNeil has a gallery of pictures from the goldenpalace.net Key Lime Pie eating contest from Panama City Beach in Florida on the buffet message board. The contest was right on the beach.

Eric Broe, the 3rd place finisher at that contest (and winner of the amateur event) played football at Florida State University. It is not clear if Broe has retired due to injuries or if he is still a member of the team. Broe is a computer science major.

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Thanks Jon Bertoletti. Pat Bertoletti appears in a commercial on the USA television network website. The ad is part of the network’s “Show us your character” campaign.

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Several podcasts of the Paunch Stevenson show have some competitive eating content in general and Sonya Thomas in particular.

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Liz of Urban Honking received a copy of “Horsemen of the Esophagus” several weeks before its official release date after meeting with author Jason Fagone. She has posted a review of the book on her blog. The main figures in the book are Coondog O’Karma and Bill “El Wingador” Simmons. IFOCE eaters were discouraged from being interviewed by their organization. IFOCE also commissioned the publication of Ryan Nerz’s book “Eat This Book” so that is why two competitive eating books are being released next month.

Correction 3/28 4:21 PM: Liz met with the editor of the book and not the author.

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(from supersizedmeals.com) No reason is provided why Chris wore a women’s one piece bathing suit when he attempted the Seabrook Tavern’s (in Topeka, KS) 3 pound Speck burger challenge, but if it was to give him Sonya Thomas’ or Kate Stelnick’s eating ability, his hopes were not realized.

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(from Laura’s livejournal) While there has been a lot of attempts the Rockford Corner Bar chili dog challenge, there is another hot dog challenge in the northeast with a more modest all time record. All Spike’s Junkyard Dogs have a hot dog Wall of Fame Eating 6 hot dogs is required to get your picture on the wall and a T Shirt. The highest total on a Wall of Fame is 17 at the Thayer Street location in Providence. Eating 18 hot dogs or more will result in the restaurant picking up the tab according to this metafilter comment.

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Dave Shoffner has started a new blog at http://megamunch.blogspot.com/ Like SuperSizedMeals.com, the main focus of the blog is the preparation and attempted consumption of abnormally large meals, but there is also some competitive eating content. The blog’s initial entry describes Ashley’s consumption of a one pound burger from Fuddruckers

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If Tim “Eater X” Janus believes he has conquered all the eating challenges in the midwest, there are some southwest eating challenges he can try. The El Paso Times has an article about local eating challenges. A burrito eating contest was cancelled at one of the restaurants because it was giving away too many free burritos.

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