"competitive eaters" news and stories

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.

There are two types of competitions in the world of competitive eating, whether you are talking about pros or about the contests you'll find at the local county fair. One type, perhaps the most popular type, emphasizes quantity and challenges participants to eat as much as they can in a set time limit. IFCOE contests from grilled cheese to ice cream to hot dogs run this way. Other contests challenge eaters to eat a certain amount as fast as possible.

With concerns about the amount of calories that the contest participants take in (and the possibility that they somehow encourage overeating and obesity), some contests are making the decision to switch to this second format, such as the committee behind the World Pie Eating Championship. Even though there have been concerns about choking in speed eating contests before, the WPEC will only have competitors eat one "regulation" meat pie in as short a time as possible. Also in the interest of health, they will be offering a meat-free pie option so as to encourage healthy eating while not discriminating against vegetarians who wish to participate.

Meatless option aside, it actually seems healthier to eat a lot of food than to simply stuff down food as fast as possible, although they planners' theory is that that goes on in the quantity-oriented contests, as well.

Source