The new poll asks how many non-IFOCE eaters will be in the top 10 cash prize winners of 2008 at the end of the year. There are currently 4 non-IFOCE eaters in the top 10: Joe Menchetti, “Furious” Pete Czerwinski, Ian Hickman and Dale Boone.

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• WLOCE myspace page started
• Megamunch resumes The Circuit online comic
• Highlands, NJ clam eating contest report
• Policeman wins Minnesota doughnut eating contest
• NYTImes: average American eats 18.2 pounds of food per week (up 1.8 lb. since 1970)
• Green Bay, WI area hamburger eating contest and festival August 9

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(From crawfish comment) The Houston Kolache Factory World Kolache Eating Championship has been added to the IFOCE calendar for Friday, September 12 (same as the NYC cannoli contest) and its purse will be $10,000. Registration opens today at 1 pm eastern.

The Costa Vida World Burrito Eating Championship has also been added to the calendar and it will take place September 20 in South Portland, Maine. Registration opens August 6 at noon eastern.

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A blog about Pat Bertoletti has been started at http://deepdisheats.wordpress.com/. Most of the entries were previously posted on Bertoletti’s myspace or yardbarker blog.

On the Joey Chestnut / Pat Bertoletti yardbarker blog, a video of the Jimmy John’s sandwich makers vs. Bertoletti, Tim Brown and Patrick VanDam event has been uploaded.

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Registration for the Nathan’s hot dog contest that will be held at the Saratoga horse racing track on August 18 is now open on IFOCE.com, which states that the contest will not be a qualifier for the 2009 finals, but the winner will receive a year’s supply of hot dogs.

In other IFOCE contest news, registration for the Los Angeles Nisei Week gyoza eating contest will open in about an hour. Sonya Thomas says she will not enter due to high travel costs (from comment)

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• Another review of the MLE video game
• Article mentioning Samantha Brown’s participation in the Italian sausage eating contest
• Ravioli contest in Providence Saturday
• A Taste of Hamburg (PA) eating contest August 30
• A possible European contest for “Furious” Pete: Pourcailhade La Fête du Cochon (PigFest) in Trie-sur-Baïse, France will have a boudin sausage eating contest on August 10

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The Sheboygan Press has a gallery and video of the bratwurst eating contest held at the Brat Days festival. One of the captions reports that Mike Fitzgerald repeated as winner by eating 22.5 sausages in 10 minutes.

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Results from Will Millender of the Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest held at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Corona Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City

Mens division
1. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti, 66 dumplings in 2 minutes, $1000
2. Will Millender, 57, $500
3. Ian Hickman, 50, $300

Womens division
1. Floria Lee, 38, $1000
2. Helen Chu, 30, $500
3. Jill Stoler, 28, $300

update Jill Stoler has a blog entry about the contest. Serious Eats has a short post.

update #2Will Millender has a blog entry, ghosty has a gallery and the People’s Daily Online of China has an English article

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• Jill Stoler reports from the Coney cheeseburger contest, won by Goose Gilbert. The contest will appear in the Discovery Channel documentary, Human Race 3000
• “Evolve: Guts” containing footage from the megaburger eating contest held at Clinton Station Diner will be televised on the History Channel on August 5 at 10 pm eastern
• Olathe, CO sweet corn contest report
• Eating contests every day of the Italian Festival in Ocean Township, NJ (Aug 6-10)
• Blog entry from Kobayashi’s hair dresser about his new blue dye job
• Report on the Osaka Gluttonous King qualifier (no results)

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A video clip of Tomoko Miyake’s DVD is available on youtube. The DVD was released on July 25 and is categorized as a gravure idol video so the clip may not be safe for all workplaces.

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• Pie eating contest at “Stand by Me” festival in Oregon drops IFOCE affiliation
• Report on Cincinnati coney eating contest
• Video of Justin Mih at the Boston Italian sausage contest
• Report on the Seattle donut eating contest / hip-hop concert
• Ithaca, NY hot dog contest coverage attacked and defended
• Fan attends Singapore satay contest and Brazilian soccer exhibition game vs. Singapore national team and draws the following conclusion:
  

  Neither are the presence of Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut so overwhelming that you know what they are capable of doing until they begin eating. Different people have different talents and focus on different things I guess.

  If there’s one important lesson that I have learnt and reminded of, it is that you just have to be really good at one thing and show it to the world that you are great at it. If you don’t show your stuff, no one knows, no one cares, one is just a face in the crowd.

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A cheeseburger eating contest will be held at Peggy O’Neill’s in Coney Island on August 2. Footage from the contest will appear in a TV program. The contest length has not been determined and the first prize is $200.

The Goya National Black Bean Eating Championship has also been added to the schedule for August 16. The contest will take place at the Central Islip Islandia Festival and the total purse is $1750.

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A possible spoiler about the identity of the final “boss” character in the Major League Eating video game is available after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

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A listing of IFOCE contests in the next two months (from information on events’ websites) follows:

Only the CT ribs, BBQ sandwiches and gyoza contests appear on the official IFOCE calendar. The gyoza contest was added today and registration opens on August 4. (from Crawfish comment)

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• Myspace page for Billy “the Fridge”, winner of Saturday’s donut contest in Seattle
• Forest City, PA pierogi eating contest Saturday
• A more positive review of the MLE video game
• Long blog entry about the Singapore contest
• Bodybuilder / competitive eater Isabelle Turell wins a bodybuilding contest and gets engaged
  

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WLOCE.com announces that registration is now open for a hot dog eating contest that will take place at the Great Southeast Balloon Fest on Sunday, August 30. The calendar for the festival’s website says that the competition will occur on Saturday, August 30 and Hooters will sponsor a wing eating contest the following Sunday. The purse for the hot dog contest is $850 $875. Dale Boone and Jason Skrzypek are expected entrants.

The balloon festival will take place in Anderson, South Carolina which is near Clemson University. Crazy Legs Conti wore a Clemson pin in this year’s Nathan’s finals.

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According to Badlands Booker’s myspace blog, his new line of Hungry & Focused apparel will be released on August 1. A myspace page is dedicated to the line and has pictures of the T-shirt styles which include three new designs in addition to the traditional 6XL logo.

In other competitive eating clothing news, Paul Barlow has posted a ranking of the best dressed Nathan’s finalists. He also has a myspace gallery (requires login).

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• Blog entry with a lot of pictures from the Singapore showdown
• IGN pans MLE video game
• Elgin, Iowa corn contest August 2, $100 first prize
• Cincinnati jalapeno cheese coney contest Wednesday, registration closes at midnight
• Skinnyboy reports that Anthony Bourdain’s appearance at the Big Texan will be televised on the Travel Channel on August 4
• Medina, Ohio hot dog contest Saturday
  
• List of all Queens dumpling winners
• Syracuse offensive lineman Ryan Durand challenges Big East clambake lobster record

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The website for the Nugget Rib Cook-Off has a page about its rib eating contest which lists the date of this year’s contest as August 27. The cook-off will be held at Victorian Square in Sparks, Nevada (Reno area).

The contest is billed as the World Rib Eating Championship and will take place five days after the IFOCE holds another World Rib Eating Championship at the Ash Creek Saloon in Connecticut.

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The Mainichi Shimbun reports that a media event was held to promote the August 9 release of the movie, Kamen Rider Kiva: The King of Hell Castle Natsuko “Gal” Sone, who will play a Medusa character in the movie, appeared with two other actors. Variety of Japan also has an article.

The blog for Dirt Productions reports that principal photography for Nacho Mountain has been completed, although the final contest scene has yet to be filmed. A myspace comment says the final scene will be filmed on August 23. A LehighValleyLive.com article about the movie says that the filmmakers hope to release the movie on the internet in January and also play at independent film festivals.

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A facebook page for Takeru Kobayashi has been set up at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Takeru-Kobayashi/17974913485. The page lists an incorrect birthday for Kobayashi of May 24 (Kobayashi’s actual birthday is March 15), so it might have been created by an impostor.

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The events calendar for the New York Racing Association reports that a Nathan’s hot dog eating contest will take place at the Saratoga Race Course on August 18. The first prize will be a year’s supply of Nathan’s hot dogs. It is not stated if the contest will be a qualifier for the 2009 finals. Registration will take place at the race course before the contest.

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The current poll asks how you rank the top 3 IFOCE members after taking last weekend’s contests into account.

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• Cookie Jarvis’ gallery of the Nathan’s weigh-in
• Furious Pete’s report for bodybuilding.com on the Dover BBQ contest
• Sarah Schreitmueller wins (Iowa) Nordic Fest lutefisk eating contest
• Steve Oddo wins Keyport, NJ IHOP pancake eating contest
• Gallery of Seattle donut eating contest / concert

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A picture caption for Washington Photo Journal has the top three finishers in Saturday’s Tofurky vegetarian hot dog eating contest held in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, DC:

1. Ian “The Invader” Hickman, 16 veggie dogs in 8 minutes
2. “Raz” (left), 14 veggie dogs
3. “Dag” (right) 8.5 veggie dogs

There was a tremendous amount of online coverage for this contest:

Blog Entries: Prince of Petworth, Shaw Garden, New Columbia Heights (has amounts), Before Wisdom

Galleries: DC Vegan, Joe Tresh, AWiseMan, LettuceTomato, Bullneck, bearshapedsphere

update OveLove has added a blog entry and gallery

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