Here are the best connections to competitive eating for the 2010 World Cup finalists I could find: Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain holds a festival called La Tomatina in which 4500 tons of tomatoes are destroyed in a food fight. (This amount is probably an order of magnitude higher than all the food consumed in all IFOCE contests combined.) Lynda Kuerth and Sharon Scholten from Dutch west Michigan are two of the notable female competitive eaters of the 20th century.

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Tonight’s episode is the first episode of Man vs. Food not set in a single metropolitan area; the sites are three minor league baseball stadiums.

Travel Channel: Guide | Slideshow | Video (baseball lesson)

ESPN interview with Adam Richman about tonight’s episode

• West Michigan Whitecaps challenge Fifth Third Burger
  MLive article before recording
  MLive article after recording (contains spoiler)
  Season statistics about the burger
• Charleston (SC) River Dogs food Homewrecker hot dog
  Press release about the recording
  Charleston City Paper article about the recording
  Video clip from Man v Food about hot dog variations at the Charleston ballpark
• Gateway (E. St. Louis area) Grizzlies food – “Baseball’s Best Burger”
  Press release about the burger, which uses a Krispy Kreme doughnut as a bun.
  BND article about the recording
  KSDK article and gallery about the recording

• List of West Michigan eating challenges
• List of Charleston eating challenges
• List of St. Louis area eating challenges

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The Rockford (Grand Rapids area) Corner Bar will hold a hold a hot dog eating contest at Comstock 09 on Saturday. The first prize is an LCD TV. The Corner Bar twitter reports that previous chili dog record holders Sharon Van Duinen and Balinda Gould will be present.

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WZZM13 reports that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has requested that the Fifth Third burger not be sold to anyone under 18 and have the following warning label:

WARNING – Eating meat is associated with increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and death

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine advocates a vegan diet along with a ban on animal testing and has received $1.3 million dollars from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals according to a 2004 Guardian article which states that 95% of PCRM members do not have a medical degree.

MLive reports that the burger will appear on ESPN’s First Take on April 7.

The T shirt awarded to finishers can be purchased on the West Michigan Whitecaps website.

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CNBC has a video clip of Darren Rovell assembling and sampling the Fifth Third burger, which was mailed from Michigan packed in dry ice. The ESPN Sportscenter clip about the sandwich is available on youtube.

update WZZM13 has a video of its traffic reporter attempting to eat the burger during its morning news show.

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(Via twitter > Consumerist > bensbiz ) A 5/3 pound burger has been added to the menu of the Western Michigan Whitecaps for the upcoming baseball season after being tested at a February food fair. The burger is topped with salsa, sour cream, chili and Fritos in addition to more conventional condiments and will cost $20. A T-shirt will reportedly be awarded to someone who completes it without help.

Darren Rovell of CNBC, a former reporter for the ESPN Nathan’s broadcast, named the sandwich his minor league concession item of the year. A listing of approximate nutrional information in his blog entry claims that the burger contains almost 5000 calories and 299 grams of fat.

The burger is not the largest sandwich available at a stadium; Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin offers a 2.5 pound “Curly’s O-Line burger”

update MLive.com has a video of the burger’s construction and the Yahoo baseball blog has a picture of the T shirt awarded to finishers.

update #2 The ESPN Sportscenter segment about the burger is available on youtube.

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(from BlessYouBoys) The blog for mlive has an entry about the food fair the West Michigan Whitecaps held to test possible new foods for the upcoming season. One of the items was a 5 / 3 pound burger with Spam, sausage gravy, fried eggs and a pickle. The burger’s weight was chosen to promote the holder of the Whitecaps’ stadium naming rights: Fifth Third Bank.

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Some free newspapers have been added to the Google News archives. One article describes Lynda Kuerth’s (spelled Linda Querth) victory in the 1977 Olivet College banana split eating contest. Ms. Kuerth’s mark of 13 banana splits doubled her closest competitor’s total, but was two less than the amount she ate in 1976. She did not starve herself before the contest but instead ate 6 slices of meat loaf for dinner before having the banana splits for dessert.

Lynda Kuerth’s victory came to the notice of contest organizers at Jim’s Steaks in Philadelphia which resulted in her travelling east to compete there and becoming the record holder at that restaurant for the remainder of the 20th century.

An image of the article is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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MLive has a blog entry (for June 26) about the attempts to break the Rockford Corner Bar’s chili dog record last year:

Wolfe has tried to get Janus (who is ranked No. 7 by the IFOCE), Chestnut and others such as Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt to come back and compete again, but it hasn’t come together.

“They are under contract, so it’s not that easy,” he said.

So, if Nathan’s Famous contest only lasts 12 minutes, and the Corner Bar allows four hours to eat your chili dogs, how long did it take for Janus to eat 43 1/2 of them?

“It took him the whole four hours,” Wolfe said.

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(Pictures taken by Mac Girl)

Downtown Trini’s in Sparta, Michigan has the most visually appealing restaurant Wall of Fame I have seen (It’s actually more of a pizza slice of fame than a wall) The record as of February 2006 was held by Tommy “Too Tall” Thompson at 37 tacos. (If somebody broke approximately 45 tacos, would they write on the ceiling?) Eating at least 13 tacos is required to appear on the Wall of Fame. The restaurant does not offer a free meal if a minimum number of tacos are eaten, but an all you can eat taco special is offered on Thursday night.

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On March 13, 1982, Sharon Scholten (now Sharon VanDuinen), a petite 5’3″ and 110 pound 25 year old, broke the chili dog record at the Rockford Corner Bar by eating 42.5 chili dogs in four hours. That record would last for almost 24 years and only Tim Janus and Balinda Gould have been able to better that performance.

The archived article about Ms. Scholten provides some interesting background information about her feat:

Saturday looked to be a normal day until her brother-in-law Jimmy Scholten suggested that she try for the record

That was after she had eaten lunch – a Mexican pizza for two, a half order of nachos, four baskets of chips and an enchilada.

But she thought she’d give it a try. After all, she met the woman’s mark two years ago by swallowing 20 franks. And there wasn’t much else to do that night.

“We were just talking about it that afternoon,” she said, “It wasn’t something I planned. I didn’t think I could do it. But Jimmy told me he had bet $600 that I could do it so I thought I’d better try.”

It turns out Jimmy had no money riding on her meal, but his white lie was enough to get Sharon to break the record.

“I was upset,” she said. “I thought I had all this money coming. He told me I’d get 75% of the profit.”

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The website for the Rockford Corner Bar has been retooled. The hot dog “Hall of Fame” has been updated to list Tim Janus’ record breaking performance from March, but only three names are listed on that page. Janus is listed as the professional record holder while Balinda Gould is the amateur champion. Sharon VanDuinen’s (Scholten) 23 year reign is mentioned, but the article about her has been removed.

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The Ionia (upstate Michigan) Sentinel Standard has an article about Thursday’s Chili Dawg Challenge. A 15 minute chili dog eating contest will be held during that event. The entry fee is $10 and no prizes are mentioned, but proceeds will go to benefit the Big Brothers / Big Sisters.

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