Competitive Eating & Drinking: A Sport For Debased Times?

[JamesWhitehead]

Cool hand ... puke?

Fancy eating 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes? Then get into competitive eating, a sport for our degraded times

John Sutherland
Monday September 9, 2002
The Guardian

Many watching Paul Newman devour 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour in Cool Hand Luke must have wondered whether that belly-boggling feat is humanly possible. In fact, the 1967 film is well in line with 2002 competitive-eating world records.
The current holder of the coveted "mustard yellow belt" is Takeru "Food Fighter" Kobayashi of Japan who, five weeks ago, ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Bill "El Wingador" Simmons heads the chicken-wing category, with 137 of the delicacies in 30 minutes ("not a pretty sight," observed one spoilsport).
Hamburgers - the heavyweight division - is dominated by Donald "the Beef" Lerman: 11 quarterpounders in 10 minutes. Edward "Cookie" Jarvis holds the ice-cream title, with one and a half gallons in 12 slurping minutes.
Jed ("Hot Gut") Donahue popped 152 jalapenos in 15 minutes (you would not want to stand next to Jed for an hour or two)."Crazy Legs" Conti walked off with the world oyster competition last April, swallowing 14 dozen in an hour. "I eat to win," declared the mollusc king. Mrs Conti doubtless had a lively night.
Competitive eating has become very big over the last two decades. So much so that TV companies (notably the despicable Fox network) are giving it airtime. It has a season which runs from January to October. The final big event this year is Reno's Chili ("Hot Times") Classic.
The crowning event of the eating season is Nathan's hot dog contest at Coney Island on July 4. The tournament, an epic clash of style, was, alas, not covered in the Guardian sports pages. In one corner was Kobayashi, master of Zen gobble, weighing in at a whippet-like 132lbs. In the other corner, the home-team champ, the human garbage grinder, "Cookie" Jarvis - an unashamed 420lbs of all-American lard (432 after the contest).
Cookie got his ass whipped. Perhaps, he ruefully concluded, that vast butt is the problem. He has vowed to train for next year's event at Weight Watchers.
Keeping the playing field level is tricky in competitive eating. The Guinness Book of World Records scrapped its live-goldfish-eating category because unscrupulous competitors were breeding smaller fish. Since 1997, the sport of gluttons has been regulated by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. IFOCE has a British affiliate (UKCEA), whose website records Wimpy as a sponsor. It would be nice to think its patron was Cordelia Gummer.
IFOCE rules on such things as the "Roman Method" (gobble-puke-gobble), "crushing" (mashing the food into small pellets) and "Solomoning" (Kobayashi's favoured technique - splitting the hot dog in two and swallowing the halves whole). The federation primly recommends "neat eating contests which focus on style, manners and grace." And don't fart.
Competitive eating is, like World Federation Wrestling, a sport for our degraded times. It coincides with an unprecedented boom in the American economy fuelled by rampant "consumption". If the American consumer stopped consuming, it would be 1929 again. America must gorge or die. But gorging is killing America. Obesity currently causes more premature death than smoking, alcoholism, drugs and auto accidents combined. America's carbon emission, the rear-end excreta of its manic surfeit, is boiling the planet.
"This is sick, abnormal behaviour," says Dr George Blackburn of Harvard medical school. "Making eating a spectator sport has to be one of the saddest commentaries on our country."
And one of the most ominous. When, as must soon happen, the boom ends, it will be with Monsieur Creosote's bang, not Greenspan's soft landing. Bon appetit.

 

[ogopogo3]

Gluttony competitions have been around for ages.

Bum fighting on the other hand.......

 

[Anonymous]

Speed stacking cups is a sure sign of a civilisation running out of steam.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Yes, these horrid displays of gluttony are age-old. I have a reference
here to a wager in Cambridge in 1770 where a youth of sixteen ate
an eight pound leg of mutton, besides huge quantities of vegetables
and bread. The next night he ate a cat smothered with onions!

And there is an article somewhere on the FT site about a wager
where a lad ate a live cat. Presumably without benefit of onions.

 

[Anonymous]

And apparently it's now going to have an evolutionary effect:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2002/leicester_2002/2246450.stm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I saw Kobayashi do his thing in "Glutton Bowl" on cable (the mayonaisse eating still gives me nightmares) and he is quite amazing - they (nearly literally) roll out these mountains of human beings and then there is this little Japanese guy who beats them easily - no American can even get close to him when it comes to hotdog consumption.

Kobayashi Sets Record for Hot Dog Eating

Sun Jul 4, 7:02 PM ET


By LUKAS I. ALPERT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - When it comes to eating hot dogs, "The Tsunami" still blows everybody away. For the fourth straight year, rail-thin Takeru Kobayashi chewed up the competition at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating competition Sunday, breaking his own previous world record.

Kobayashi, 26, of Nagano, Japan, gulped down 53 1/2 wieners in 12 minutes and shattered his own world record by three dogs. In 2002, he had wolfed down 50 1/2.

The closest competitor Sunday was newcomer Nobuyuki Shirota, 25, of Tokyo, who made an impressive showing but couldn't cut the mustard with 38 downed dogs.

Once again, then, the contest's coveted Mustard Yellow Belt returns to Japan. Since 1996, the Japanese have dominated the competition and only one American — New Jersey's Steve Keiner in 1999 — has captured the belt at the signature July 4 extravaganza.

The 5-foot-7, 132-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, employed his trademark method of snapping the dogs in half before swallowing them to destroy the 19 other contestants.

Meanwhile, 105-pound Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, 36, of Alexandria, Va., could relish two new records: She ate more hot dogs — 32 — than any other woman and any other American in the contest's history.

Eric "Badlands" Booker, a 6-foot-4, 400-pound subway conductor from Long Island who came in fifth with 27 dogs, said he and the other competitive eaters were determined to unseat the Japanese.

"We aren't going to stop until we bring the belt back," he told ESPN.

Kobayashi seemed unworried.

"I will come back next year and try and break the record once again," he said.

Source

Emps

 

[escargot]

A more modest achievement is the Fatty Arbuckles restaurant challenge.

They bring you loads of food and if you eat it you get your name on a certificate on the wall. My big daft son did this in Manchester.
Fat sod.

He's actually a beanpole. :hmph:

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Woman Eats 38 Lobsters in Eating Contest

105-Pound Woman Eats 38 Lobsters in 12 Minutes to Win Eating Contest in Maine

The Associated Press



KENNEBUNK, Maine Aug. 21, 2004 — America's top speed-eater wolfed down 38 lobsters in 12 minutes Saturday to win the World Lobster Eating Contest.

Sonya Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., won 0 and a trophy belt for her efforts, consuming 9.76 pounds of lobster meat.

Each contestant had a partner cracking the shells and pulling out the meat. Eleven competitors ate as many lobsters as they could in a 12-minute period, devouring a total of 300 pounds.

"I have a natural ability because of my stomach capacity," said Thomas, who weighs a mere 105 pounds. "I could eat more, but something else not a lobster."

The competition, only in its second year, sought to elevate Maine into the big leagues of competitive eating, alongside New York's Coney Island with its Nathan's Famous hot dogs and New Orleans with its oysters.

This year's competition at the Pilot House Grill & Boatyard was sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which ranked Thomas the country's top speed-eater.

Thomas was coming off a baked bean victory days before in Indiana, where she consumed 8.4 pounds of beans with pork in 2 minutes and 47 seconds. She also holds records for hard-boiled eggs.

---------------------
On the Net:

International Federation of Competitive Eating

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040821_1462.html

And the IFoCE site:
http://www.ifoce.com

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Woman Eats 38 Lobsters in Eating Contest

105-Pound Woman Eats 38 Lobsters in 12 Minutes to Win Eating Contest in Maine

The Associated Press



KENNEBUNK, Maine Aug. 21, 2004 — America's top speed-eater wolfed down 38 lobsters in 12 minutes Saturday to win the World Lobster Eating Contest.

Sonya Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., won 0 and a trophy belt for her efforts, consuming 9.76 pounds of lobster meat..........

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040821_1462.html

And she is still going strong:

'Black Widow' Wins Meatball-Eating Contest

Dec 6, 4:45 PM (ET)

By DAVID PORTER

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Somewhere in the world there may be someone who can eat more food in less time than Sonya Thomas, but don't bet your next meal on it. Thomas, known in uber-eating circles as "The Black Widow," proved her mettle once again Saturday at the Tropicana, dominating the competition in what was billed as the World Meatball Eating Championships.

Facing a field that included several men who could have fit the 105-pound Thomas into one of their pant legs, she finished off 89 meatballs in 12 minutes, or about one meatball shy of six pounds. The next closest competitor was nearly a pound behind.

Were that not impressive enough, this should strike fear into the hearts and stomachs of her future foes: guys, she could have eaten more.

"I wasn't that full," Thomas said after receiving the $2,500 winner's check. "I had room for more. It was the swallowing that was the hard part."

Thomas, 37, of Alexandria, Va., is the Lance Armstrong of competitive eating. Since taking up the pastime 18 months ago, she has won more than $40,000 and holds titles in a variety of food categories.

"I'm really competitive, and I knew I could eat more than a normal person," Thomas said. "So I wanted to see how much I could eat."

Among the feats she can lay claim to are eating 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes and 36 dozen oysters in 10 minutes. Last weekend she ate 52 hard-boiled eggs in five minutes at halftime of an NBA game in Orlando.

The opportunities are provided by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which sponsors more than 75 "stomach-centric" events annually and claims more than 3,000 competitors nationwide.

For Saturday's event, Carmine's restaurant made 3,000 meatballs - all owner Jeffrey Bank would divulge was that they were a mix of ground veal, beef and pork - for a dozen contestants. Each contestant started with a five-pound plate, then moved on to a two-pound plate once the first one was finished.

Only Thomas and a few others made it to the second plate. Sandwiched between the hulking Eric "Badlands" Booker, a New York City subway conductor and aspiring rap artist, and the equally imposing "Hungry" Charles Hardy, she worked her way into a sort of rhythm, stopping occasionally to swallow and grab a few gulps of water. Next to her, Booker added a little shimmy as he stood up to aid the food on its downward path.

Booker, 35, of Copiague, N.Y., started strong but his pace slowed by the final minutes, and he finished in third place, good for $750.

"After the first six minutes, it's 80 percent mental," he said. "It's mind over matter, because at that point your body is telling your brain, 'I'm full.'"

Second place and $1,250 went to 60-year-old Rich LeFevre of Henderson, Nev., who said he took up competitive eating two years ago to take advantage of a contest in Las Vegas that offered the winner a trip to New York. At 130 pounds, LeFevre is nearly as small as Thomas and nearly as accomplished, though he confided before Saturday's pig-out that he was probably playing for second place.

"She has the edge on me right now," he said.

Thomas' secrets to preparing for a competition are as simple as they are surprising. She said she eats just one meal a day - usually a chicken Whopper, chicken tenders and fries at Burger King, where she works - and drinks large amounts of soda in order to stretch her stomach out. The rest comes down to technique and willpower.

"It's mostly a mind game," she said. "Swallowing the food is difficult, and if you can't control it, it will come back out. You just have to focus."

Source

 

[Timble2]

For those of you who can't bear to eat a single sprout at Crimble (I love them, but not this many.

Officer bit off more than he could chew

16 Dec 2004 10:13
Report by MATT MILLARD

A TACTICAL mishap cost a policeman his place in the record books when he failed in his attempt to eat 43 Brussels sprouts - in a minute.

Martin Gardner, fell just 16 sprouts short of the Guinness World Record and revealed his tactics were flawed.

"The gameplan was to stick as many in my mouth as possible, then swallow," said the 28-year-old. "But I just couldn't do it, it was like swallowing bullets."

The world record attempt took place at the Cambridgeshire Police Headquarters, at Hinchingbrooke, on Friday, and work colleagues were out in force to support him, and to raise money for the Chatteris Cat's Protection League.

Everyone waited with baited breath as Martin went through his final preparations - sipping water, breathing deeply and praying.

Then after a count of five, the challenge begun.

Martin was off like an express train, sprouts flying into his mouth and his jaws moving quicker than the pistons in Schumacher's Ferrari.

Five sprouts down in quick succession, he seemed to be going well. Ten down, his cheeks look like a gerbil's. Fifteen, he's slowing a little, and by 20 he was struggling, the fame, the fortunes, the glory fading fast as the record slipped away.

He managed seven more before the official time keeper indicates just five seconds left, Martin was beaten.

"I just couldn't do it," he said despondently. "There were just too many."

It was a gallant effort from the fingerprint officer. The Brussels had barely been cooked for four minutes, and had to be at room temperature.

"It's disappointing, I've managed more than this in training," he added.

Two weeks of hard training had gone into the preparations, Brussels for breakfast, lunch and dinner

"Rocky's got nothing on me."

A few eyebrows had been raised at the bizarre record attempt. And questions asked as to why.

Martin explained: "I've always wanted a world record. I was looking through the Guinness Book of World Records and came across the Brussels one.

"I thought 'well I like eating' so I gave it a go."

The previous record of 43 was set by Dave Mynard in this country in 2003, and he could sleep easily Friday, safe in the knowledge his record is intact.

As for Martin and wife Helen, it was to a harder night's sleep.

"Martin is sleeping on the couch tonight," revealed Mrs Gardner.

Hunts Post Sprouts[/url]

 

[Anonymous]

There's a pub in Tipton, West Midlands which does a Desperate Dan pie. It consists of a large Sunday lunch in one pot with a pastry topping on (complete with pastry horns). If you can eat it all you get it for nowt.

 

[TheQuixote]

There's a pub in Tipton, West Midlands which does a Desperate Dan pie. It consists of a large Sunday lunch in one pot with a pastry topping on (complete with pastry horns). If you can eat it all you get it for nowt.

That would be Mad O'Rourke's Pie Factory over in Tip-ternn! Well that's if it is still there, haven't been that way in a while.
--------------

New Jersey woman downs six-pound burger at Clearfield pub
January 14, 2005, 11:07 PM EST


CLEARFIELD, Pa. (AP) - A 100-pound female college student is the first to meet the Denny's Beer Barrel Pub challenge: down the restaurant's six-pound hamburger and five pounds of fixins' within three hours.

Kate Stelnick, 19, of Princeton, N.J., made the five-hour drive with two friends from The College of New Jersey on Wednesday, after they saw pictures of the monster burger, dubbed the Ye Old 96er, on the Internet and on TV's Food Network.

"I just saw it on TV and I really thought I could do it," Stelnick said, after downing the burger in two hours, 54 minutes.

Stelnick didn't eat for two days to prepare for the challenge. "I felt very full, but I was too excited that I actually ate it to notice," Stelnick said.

Denny Leigey Jr., the owner of the bar 35 miles northwest of State College, had offered a two-pound burger for years and conceived of the six-pounder after his daughter went to college and phoned him about a bar that sold a four-pounder.

But nobody had finished the big burger in the three-hour time limit since it was introduced on Super Bowl Sunday 1998 _ not even competitive eater Eric "Badlands" Booker. The 420-pound Booker _ who has eaten such things as 49 glazed doughnuts in eight minutes and two pounds of chocolate bars in six minutes _ tried three times to eat the burger and finally did on his third effort. But it took Booker 7{ hours.

The burger takes 45 minutes to cook, and those who try to meet the three-hour limit must use no utensils and eat all of these fixins: one large onion, two whole tomatoes, one half head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, top and bottom buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles.

Leigey said he was pretty sure somebody would meet his burger challenge, though he didn't have a petite woman in mind.

"I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was possible," Leigey said.

For her trouble, Stelnick got a special certificate, a T-shirt and other prizes and as advertised Leigey picked up the $23.95 tab for the burger.

Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press

Newsday.com

 

[elffriend]

And this is the said 6lb burger :shock: :shock:

 

[Kondoru]

Your making me Hunggryyyyy....

Wasnt Kobyashi parodied (and thrashed) in an ep of `Megas XLR`??

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Takeru Kobayashi does it again!!!

Where does he put it all? No American can get even close to his level of consumption even the pros who weigh 3 or 4 times as much as him - although that woman is scary.

Japanese Man Keeps Hot Dog-Eating Crown


Jul 5, 8:59 AM (ET)


NEW YORK (AP) - For the fifth straight year, it was a victory Takeru Kobayashi could truly relish. Kobayashi, 27, captured the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest Monday, gobbling a nauseating 49 dogs in 12 minutes - but missing his own world record of 53 1/2, set at last year's July Fourth competition.

The win means the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt will return to Japan for the ninth year out of the past 10. New Jersey's Steve Keiner, who won in 1999, is the only American to capture the title in the past decade.

Kobayashi, of Nagano, stands 5 feet 7 inches and weighs just 144 pounds.

The runner-up was Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Va. - known as The Black Widow on the competitive-eating circuit - who set an American record by downing 37 hot dogs in the same 12 minutes.

Thomas, who manages a Burger King restaurant, separates the hot dog from the bun and eats them separately. She dips the bun in water to make it easier to swallow with less chewing.

"I want to be No. 1 in the world, so I practice," she told CNN shortly after the contest. "I'm working on more speed."

She said she was planning a light dinner - maybe a salad.

"My stomach doesn't hurt," she said, "but my jaw is tired."

Thomas, who weighs a remarkable 105 pounds, is a rising speed-eating star. Last December in Atlantic City, N.J., she finished off 89 meatballs - about six pounds' worth - in 12 minutes. And in August, she captured a lobster-eating contest in Maine by consuming 38 of the creatures in 12 minutes.

The hot dog contest takes place outside the original Nathan's in Coney Island. The contest was first held there in 1916.

---

On the Net:

Nathan's Famous Corp.: http://www.nathansfamous.com

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200507 ... 88J01.html

 

[Kondoru]

Banzai Kobayashi!!!

 

[OneWingedBird]

A more modest achievement is the Fatty Arbuckles restaurant challenge.

I had a terrible feeling for one second that this might involve a bottle of wine, an ice bucket, and a starlet :shock:

 

[Yithian]

The 8500 calorie manwich

On the 29th May 2004, James decided to build a sandwich. This is his story

I'd been studying at Warwick University in the UK, and I had just finished my Computer Science finals (I'm now doing a PhD in Edinburgh). I went out and got drunk, had a nice lie in and bought a couple of new games in town, but I just didn't feel totally liberated.

So I decided to build an enormous f*****g sandwich. Inside this affront to God would be an enchilada, some garlic mushrooms, burgers, sausages, assloads of cheese and some good old HP sauce. I put in a bit of salad as well to even out the bad stuff.

Building the manwich:

Below are pictures of the building and the eating (click for full size pics). I had to use skewers to keep the damn thing upright, like the Millennium Dome.

Everything that went inside, including an enchilada inside the top layer and a healthy bit of salad to balance out the mountains of cheese and meat.

Initial preparation of the manwich...

http://www.jengajam.com/r/Giant-Sandwich

 

[Yithian]

BUT, I admire a man that sees such an achievement as a challenge. A gauntlet thrown down if you will...

So I'm sure you all have seen the Giant Sandwich. If you haven't, go there now. When I first read that, I realized he is a god among men.

So I got an idea in my head. A particularly stupid idea. This makes it even harder to simply pass up.

I think to myself: "I can top this guy - he didn't fry anything!"

And it begins.

The result will be… appalling. A tyrant of a sandwich, so gargantuan and calorically blessed that the mere sight of which would cause Jesus himself to break down in an explosive torrent of tears and fury.

Consumption of this sandwich, this crime against nature, should in and of itself be enough to sentence its eater to the third Dantean circle and an eternity in festering muck.

Everything in the sandwich, with the exception of some of the veggies, cheese, and condiments will be fried; either pan-fried in gratuitous amounts of butter, bacon fat, and garlic salt, or plunged into a deep fat fryer. Preferably both.

I quickly drafted up a grocery list. To some, this might look like the shopping list for a small family. Nay, it will all become part of my tyrant of a sandwich. Here is the final list:

Food Calories
Fried Mushrooms – 15 450
Bacon – 14 pieces 990
Onion rings – 18 1140
Ground Beef – 1/4 lb. 293
Corndogs – 2 540
Swiss Cheese – 4 slices 425
Provolone Cheese – 4 slices 397
Cheddar Cheese – 4 slices 455
Sliced Ham – 1/4 lb. 184
Sliced Turkey – 1/4 lb. 181
Pastrami – 1/4 lb. 394
Sliced Roast Beef – 1/4 lb. 200
Bratwurst – 1 510
Braunschweiger – 1/4 lb. 580
Wheat Bread – 1 lb. 1030
Lettuce – 1/2 head 25
Feta Cheese – 4 oz. 350
Italian Salad Dressing – 6 oz. 480
Oregeno – 50 grams 438
Salt & Pepper – 50 grams 0
Butter – 1/2 lb. 1600
Parmesan Cheese – 100 grams 465
Canola Oil – 154 Tbsp. 18,432
Total 29,559

On a windy November afternoon, a particular afternoon that we had off of school, Ben, Jeff and I spent two hours gathering the necessary ingredients for the sandwich. Our first stop was Wal-Mart.
Upon arrival at Wally world, I secured a cart and we began our hoarding. Most of the fried goods were acquired here, as well as the bread and a few other things. The total ended at $14.07. Not too bad, I think to myself. Next plan of attack: hit up Hy-Vee.

Hy-Vee was likewise raided. This time, the deli counter. “I need a quarter pound of ham, turkey, pastrami, roast beef, cheddar, swiss and provolone.” The woman behind the counter was appalled at my delivery. I merely responded with the truth, “I’m making a 30,000 calorie sandwich,” as calmly as possible. She seemed to understand my quest, and turned out baggies of meat and cheese for me.

Once all of the food had been taken captive, and we had begun our exit, we stopped. Oil! Quickly we rushed back to the aisle with oils, and snagged a nearby worker to explain to us the difference between vegetable and canola oil. She recommended canola oil. A quick calorie comparison proved her right. A gallon bottle was placed in the cart, and we left, however not before forking over $33. Yes, you read correctly. A forty-seven ($47) dollar sandwich...

http://www.sitepalace.com/derian/

 

[Kondoru]

<shrugs>

I once made a Turducken for three people; does this count?

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

One does wonder at what point it stops becoming a sandwich - ultimately you could jam whatever you like in there. I'd say a good standard should be if you can still hold the thing in your hands (matron) - which in essence is in he spirit the sarnie was created.

------------
Just watched The Big Eat on Channel 4:

22:00 The Big Eat

A one-off documentary about competitive eating, a bizarre activity recognised in the USA and Japan as a sport of champions.

The guy who runs the IFOCE is completely barmy and it was weird seeing the interview with his wife. You'd think if he was so convincing that he might have convinced her

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Just see the prog on tape. Was that promotor on planet Bullshit or what?


However I did laugh out out at the phrase "Four Horsemen of the Oesophagus"

-

 

[TheQuixote]

An interview with a married couple who both participate in competitive eating:

[...]

Is the process of speed eating uncomfortable? Rich: It's truly grueling. It's an all-out war. With all these new young guys who train like crazy, it's put everything on a different level. They've stretched the capacity of the esophagus. They've done something that wasn't considered humanly possible. Carlene: The only reason I keep going is, I don't want to fail. I don't want to be the worst. When I first started competing I'd worry about how I looked eating, so I'd try to hide my face, but it eventually got to the point where I wanted to win so badly I didn't care. Now I eat standing up because it's harder for food to go down when your body is curved. Of course, I still make sure to keep napkins in my pocket. Before the TV camera zooms in, I wipe my face very quickly and apply my lipstick with the reflection on the blade of my knife.

You can read the full (but brief) article over at the Village Voice

 

[ramonmercado]

India's 'monster eater' retires

India's 'monster eater' retires

Rappai says he has other things to worry about apart from food (photos by AS Satheesh)

Restaurant owners in the town of Trissur in the Indian state of Kerala can breathe a huge sigh of relief - the "monster eater" is retiring.
They can now think again about launching "eat as much as you like" lunches and buffets.

That is because Rappai - the man with the giant appetite - has been warned by medics to curb his food intake.

In his prime it would have been an under-statement to describe Rappai's appetite as voracious.

'Unlimited meals'

This was a man who quite easily could plough his way through two buckets of rice and accompanying chicken and vegetable dishes.

For breakfast it was said he could devour 75 idlies (rice cakes) and still have room for more.

On one famous occasion, the man who locally became known as Theeta (monster eater) took advantage of a local restaurant's "unlimited meals" coupon.

He reputedly scoffed three bucketfuls of rice, one bucket of fish curry and 10 kgs of cooked meat.



The restaurant in question ran out of food, and police had to be called in to restore order as a large crowd gathered to watch Rappai in action.

The BBC's Sridevi Pillai in Trivandrum says that such eating extravaganzas became more commonplace as Rappai's fame spread throughout the state.

A regular at Kerala's informal eating competitions, Rappai is also credited on one day with ploughing his way through 700 idlies on top of 10 kgs of halwa (an Indian dessert).

No wonder then that when hoteliers saw this cheerful man majestically walking around the town - adorned in khaki shirt and white dhoti - they would hastily put up the shutters of their premises and close down.

Turn violent

But now 64-year-old Rappai's huge appetite has had to be curtailed because he recently developed a severe stomach ache.

He was told in no uncertain terms to eat less or face the consequences.

"I am diabetic and my body weight was too heavy at around 115kg," he said.

"I have decided to listen to the doctors. I think I have lost the power to digest food. My friends, especially my police friends, have advised me to eat more carefully.


My heavy eating days are over, there will be no more competitions for me

Rappai

Rappai refers to his "police friends" for good reason: there were times that hoteliers became so enraged at his capacity to eat huge amounts of food that situations sometimes threatened to turn violent.

Police rescued him several times, on occasion even taking him back to the station for a little more food.

Today Rappai is resting at his home at Kizhakkumpattukara in Trissur.

He says that other things to worry about apart from his stomach.

"I have my 90-year-old mother to look after," he says, "and now have to cope with tremendous change in my life.

"Gone are the days of unbridled consumption of idlies, halwa and buckets full of boiled rice.

"My heavy eating days are over," he says. "There will be no more competitions for me."

"Now I only take a bowl of Kanji (rice gruel) for breakfast and a little rice for lunch and dinner.

Rappai gives a toothless grin.

"Anyway I have lost all my teeth because of over-consumption of sweets."




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5213238.stm

 

[EnolaGaia]

Competitive eater dies doing what (I hope ... ) he loved doing.

Man dies after competing in California taco-eating contest

A man died shortly after competing in a taco-eating contest at a minor league baseball game in California, authorities said Wednesday.

Dana Hutchings, 41, of Fresno, died Tuesday night shortly after arriving at a hospital, Fresno Sheriff spokesman Tony Botti said.

An autopsy on Hutchings will be done Thursday to determine a cause of death, Botti said. It was not immediately known how many tacos the man had eaten or whether he had won the contest.

Fresno Grizzlies spokesman Paul Braverman said in a statement that the team was “devastated to learn” of the fan’s death and that the team would “work closely with local authorities and provide any helpful information that is requested.”


Tuesday night’s competition came ahead of Saturday’s World Taco Eating Championship to be held at Fresno’s annual Taco Truck Throwdown. The team on Wednesday announced that it was canceling that taco-eating contest, though a “taco truck throwdown” featuring food trucks and musical entertainment would go ahead as planned.

Matthew Boylan, who watched Tuesday’s taco eating contest from his seat in Section 105, told the Fresno Bee he quickly noticed Hutchings because “he was eating so fast compared to the other two (contestants).”

“It was like he’d never eaten before,” Boylan said. “He was just shoving the tacos down his mouth without chewing.”

He said Hutchings collapsed and hit his face on a table about seven minutes into the contest, then fell to the ground. The eating contest ended immediately.

During the 2018 Taco Eating Championship in Fresno, professional eater Geoffrey Esper downed 73 tacos in eight minutes, KFSN-TV reported.

SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/67bcd926860c40d59b3ee08e23b97712

 

[Shady]

Wonder if he starved himself for the competition?, wonder if they were spicy? Can imagine them getting trapped all backed up, yuk, gluttony and fame, brill combo

 

[EnolaGaia]

Wonder if he starved himself for the competition? ...

Apparently so ...

Fans were watching the contest on the Jumbotron, which quickly cut away when Hutchings collapsed. Another fan told the ABC affiliate that Hutchings had said he had a plan. “He said he was going to enter a taco eating contest and has been not eating all day to make himself a winner,” Eric Schmidt said ...

SOURCE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...est-minor-league-baseball-game/?noredirect=on

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm just guessing, but I reckon he just forgot to breathe. And the tacos were so hot, they caused a reflux. He just choked and had no oxygen.

 

[INT21]

One has to wonder at the mentality.

 

[His Extremely DeLux Self]

When you're traveling on I-40, anywhere within two hundred miles of Amarillo, Texas you'll see signs advertising a world-famous (according to the signs anyway) steakhouse inviting the hungry wayfarer to stop and have a steak--including the house special, a 72-ounce steak (yes, that's four-and-a-half pounds!) cooked like you like it. If you finish yours in one setting, the promoyion promises, it's free!

I've never been tempted--I like pork, fish, and seafood way better than I like steak, and besides that I travel on a low (read almost nonexistent) budget. But I've spoken to people who have eaten there, including one guy who allegedly took the 72-ounce challenge, and they tell a tale of terror.

It seems that if one orders the great big steak, they are seated at a special raised table, with bells and horns and great hullabaloo to attract spectators. Moreover, the challenge is actually to eat the whole steak dinner--a week's worth of beef, with salad, rolls, and a side of fries or baked potato--and to eat it all in one hour. If you succeed in getting it all down (and keeping it all down), you not only eat free, but get some kind of award--a E-shirt, or a certificate of gluttony, or something like that. If you fail, of course, you have to pay for your meal like anyone else, and it costs in the neighborhood of $75.00!! That comes out to a dollar an ounce with spuds, salad and rolls covered by the remaining three bucks.

Methinks there's a little bet-hedging going on there...