The Daily Record’s article about the NJ Balloon Festival gives two different dates for the Quick Chek Italian Sub eating contest, the correct date of July 29 in the sidebar and an incorrect date of July 30 in the body of the article. The Courier Post has basically the same article, but it does not have an incorrect date.

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The Kalamazoo Gazette has a report on last weekend’s Reuben sandwich eating contest held at Pastrami Joe’s in Marshall, MI. That newspaper also has an interview with Jason Fagone.

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The Battle Creek Enquirer has a report on yesterday’s Reuben Sandwich Eating Championship, won by Mark Lyle.

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The Courier News has a short article and some pictures from yesterday’s QuickChek Italian Sub Eating Qualifier at Bridgewater, NJ won by “King” George Van Laar.

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The Boston Globe has a preview of the Italian Sauage Eating contest in East Boston, MA and the Battle Creek Enquirer has a preview of the Reuben Sandwich Eating contest in Marshall, MI. Both contests will take place on Saturday. The Italian Sausage contest will be held at the Italia Unita Festival, so wearing a Zinadine Zidane jersey is not recommended.

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The Lansing State Journal and the Kalamazoo Gazette both have previews of Pastrami Joe’s, of Marshall, MI, Reuben sandwich eating contest scheduled for July 15. Entrants will wear costumes similar to professional wrestlers outfits.

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The Battle Creek Enquirer has an article about next month’s AICE Reuben Sandwich eating contest to be held at Pastrami Joe’s Deli in Marshall, MI, which has made a web page for that event.

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NorthJersey.com has a report on yesterday’s Quick Chek Italian sub qualifier held in Hackensack, New Jersey. Ian Hickman won the contest, and Joshua “the Lumberjack” Hearne and Mike Grove also gained entrance into the finals.

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The Gothamist blog has an entry about today’s Schnack Stahl-Meyer 30 inch Hot Dog Eating Contest in Brooklyn. Joe Menchetti easily defended his title and won $500 by finishing his megafrankfurter in 1 minute 53 seconds.

Tien Mao has also has a blog entry and gallery of the contest.

Updated May 30, 3:21 PM – Jesse has another gallery of the contest.

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timescommunity.com has a preview of tomorrow’s strawberry eating contest at the Delaplane Strawberry Festival and a profile of Ian Hickman.

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With the Big Daddy burger contest tomorrow, it is an appropriate time to look back on the last megaburger contest, the AICE Zeus burger contest held at the Clinton Station Diner in New Jersey in May. Three person teams were allowed 75 minutes to finish the 12.5 pound sandwich. The only group to beat the deadline, the Tri-State Titans, finished with a time of 71 minutes, consisted of “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti, Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman, and Dominick “The Doginator” Cardo. The Titan’s efforts were almost invalidated by Chowhound’s vomiting soon after he completed the burger.

Kate Stelnick served as celebrity judge, her only involvement in an eating contest. The article does not state if it was her call if Chapman’s “reversal of fortune” occured after an allowable time. That experience might have been distasteful enough for her to withdraw completely from competitive eating. Another possible theory for her absence is suggested by her quote that she won a lot of bets from people who did not think she could finish the 96er burger. She could be winning a lot of money betting people in buffets and wants to keep a low profile so none of her potential victims recognize her (which could be the premise of a possible movie: “Svelte Co-eds Can’t Eat.” 😉 )

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Ian Hickman won the Farmer Boy’s Fried Zucchini contest held in Riverside, California on Saturday, his second consecutive victory. After taking Joe Menchetti’s current hiatus from AICE events into account, there does not appear to be any active eater on who can impede Hickman’s rise to the top of that organization.

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burgerclub.org has a photo gallery of the AICE Schnack burger contest held at the Brooklyn Lyceum in October which was won by Joe Menchetti.

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katestelnick.com has a video clip (2.4 MB 4:27 low quality) from Food TV’s Unwrapped about the Ye Olde 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Pub in Clearfield, PA. That sandwich is generally listed at 11 pounds, but it actually weighs in at 10 pounds when it is placed on a scale. The clip shows how the 96er is constructed and it also has footage of an AICE contest held at Denny’s in the summer of 2004 that in which “Chowhound” Chapman and Coondog O’Karma participated. Seeing the clip last January reportedly inspired Kate Stelnick to be the first person to complete it in under three hours several days later.

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from competitiveeaters.com/news.htm

Zan’s Deli, Lake Grove, Long Island, NY

1st – Ian “The Invader” Hickman, 21 latkes in 8 minutes
2nd – “Skinny” Scott Soifer
3rd – Chris “The American” Schlesinger
4th – Mike “The Real Skinny” Hoffman
5th – Elihu “Cissy” Godbolt (African-American female from Omaha)

No sign of Angela Michaud from the contest pictures.

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AICE has updated their rankings (only the top 23 have been changed, #24 and below are exactly the same as the October rankings) and eaters to watch with profiles of Michael “The Mongoose” Dodd and Angela Michaud. Ms. Michaud was the only female to crack the top 3 of an IFOCE or AICE event in 2005 (at last month’s hot dog contest in Ontario) other than Sonya Thomas and Carlene LeFevre and she will compete in tommorow’s latke contest in Long Island. There is also a profile of Joel “The Cannon” Podelsky from the New Jersey Jewish News.

Joe Menchetti will not appear at the latke contest (he will be reselling tickets for the UConn-UNH game) or the zucchini contest next month and casts doubt on whether he will compete in any AICE event in the future.

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(from competitiveeaters.com/news.htm) Thanksgiving weekend, AICE held a series of three contests in pumpkin pie, spaghetti & meatballs and large hotdogs at the Casino Niagra in Ontario which were won by Joe Menchetti, Coondog O’Karma and Mark Lyle respectively. Massachusetts resident Angie Michaud made a strong entrance into competitive eating at that event, taking third place in hot dogs and performing strongly in spaghetti, but finishing out of the money. She will compete in her first contest in the United States at the potato latke contest in New York City later this month.

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The blog for Schnäck’s restaurant has the results of their mini-burger contest held Friday. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti won with 21 burgers in 8 minutes. The contest required picnic-style eating, which decreased the totals as compared with the Krystal burger contests which has no such restriction.

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