Competitive Eaters Gather at the NYC Dumpling Fest

by Alexa Weibel, Posted Oct 26th 2009 @ 3:00PM

NYC Dumpling Fest 2009. Photo: Alexa Weibel.

Watching the eating contestants devour bowls of dumplings at painful speeds -- and even, in some cases, to messy, unfortunate results -- did nothing to quell the appetites of visitors sampling dumplings from around the world at the sixth annual NYC Dumpling Fest. The fest paid tribute to the global bundle Saturday in a event featuring a competitive eating contest, a dumpling how-to class, author appearances and food stands serving edible representations from around the world.

The Lower East Side function supported the Food Bank for New York City with sales of the usual Asian dumplings and a smattering of dumpling cousins: Polish pierogi, Chinese bao, Italian gnocchi, Mexican tamales, Asian pot stickers, Malaysian kuih koci, Indian idli and Filipino palitawa.

Chefs Wai Hon Chu (co-author of "The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide") and Jaden Hair (author of "The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner) did book signings, but the obvious highlight of the event was the eating contest.

Forty contestants, largely male, of all shapes and sizes showed up to voraciously dive into bowls of whole-wheat dumplings at varying speeds. Judged by a panel including city councilman John Liu -- who quipped about the dumpling, "All those ingredients in one little package, what more could you ask for!" -- the gustatory athletes were an amusingly motley bunch.

More on the eating competition, after the jump.

One male contestant, dubbed "the Fly," proudly explained his moniker: "Cause I'm on food like a fly," while another admitted, "I don't know how many dumplings I can eat, but I'm gonna puke my guts out!" And hurl he did, getting disqualified in the contest with a score of zero. But he was not alone -- competitive eater "Big Will the Champ" learned a hard lesson after preparing for the sport with a liquid fast -- but also got disqualified, being the first and only of his round to fail to keep the food down.

Embracing the toils and triumphs of competitive eating was four-year champion Joe "The Gentleman" Menchetti, devouring 53 dumplings in the span of two minutes. Although he aimed to top his record of 66 dumplings with a whopping 67, Menchetti attributed his final count to the whole-wheat encasing being heftier than the usual rice covering. His tip? "Do as little chewing as humanly possible."

The athletic second place winner "Furious" Pete Czerwinski was beat by one dumpling, with a score of 52. "I'm really pissed off," he ranted. "This is my 19th contest and my first loss ever ... But Joe is a champ and if anyone's gonna beat me, I'm glad it's him."

Richard, the third place winner with 49, was the newest of the winners to competitive eating, having but one burger win under his (girthy) belt.

The 16 female competitors were an equally diverse bunch -- if generally smaller in stature -- and ranged from enthusiastic competitive eaters to Food Bank workers. In fact, winner Olga -- a petite, eccentrically dressed younger woman later dubbed "Red Dragon" for her fiery red bob -- had never competed before, but beat many of the men with her 40 dumpling streak.

Popularized by the annual Coney Island Nathan's Famous hot-dog eating contest, the pastime hit the major leagues with the formation of the International Federation of Competitive Eating in the 1990s and larger events are even broadcasted on ESPN. But the sport isn't always pretty: The volatile stomachs of some competitors had the Dumpling Fest announcer admitting, "I'm scared to venture behind the table!"

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