A-Bomb and ...

Eating contests and Eating challenges around Kona & Denver



Big Eyed Fish

Click here to see the Krystal video.

So this one, while still fun and a great experience, will probably go down as one of my least favorite IFOCE events I've been able to be in.

It started out well - T getting me to the airport, breezing to the gate, and arriving in Phoenix without any problems.



I get to the fair. I pass by some booths that have the World's Smallest Horse, World's Biggest Gator, World's Hairiest Man but go by those to the area where the Sky City Casino World Fry Bread Eating Championship will be. Nice area with three separate stages. On #1 is the AWAA championship. On #2 is USDOS championship.



On #3 is Sky City Casino World Fry Bread Eating Championship.



Oh, for those who don't know AWAA is the Arm Wrestling Association of America and USDOS is the United States Dutch Oven Society. What a lineup - AWAA, USDOS, IFOCE.

Here's a photo from behind the stage showing the large crowd. You can get an idea of how large the fry bread was.



There were 12 eaters. 8 ranked, 4 local guys. With the stage being on the small side this necessitated the tables being in an L formation, 8 at one and 4 on the other. As nobody went over to the kids table when they were announced there was a little re-arranging by Ryan before the eating began. But 10-9-8 and it was on.

From that photo above you may have gotten an idea of the size of the fry bread, but you got no idea of the consistency. From what I've heard about indian fry bread, when freshly made, it is sort of like a doughnut without the hole. But when it sits around and is allowed to cool off it often becomes hard and not too enjoyable. That's what people had told me. I thought no, let it sit around and it may get limp like french fries. But no, the fry bread was rock hard. A few times I let it soak in water but that didn't soften it at all. Then it was just wet beef jerky. And the chewing - very difficult to chew and tear bites off. Yeah, that strong jaw idea, it is important. I've always minimized chewing; any preparations I do focus on getting the food down the throat, not chewing it. I wasn't as prepared for this as I thought.

But everyone faced the same thing. Like the 3 Brother's pizza competition, determining where everyone finished is almost impossible because Ryan only looked at a few plates that could have been in the mix. My stack of 10 was down to 4.5 left, so 5.5 eaten but 1.0 was deducted for leftovers on the table beside my plate because I was not the neatest in trying to find edible pieces. I put my placing at 5th because when I was standing around I looked at the plates and just saw one other plate that looked to have a shorter stack than mine. But it's hard to say who finished where when you take into account bread detritus both on the table and in cups.

With not having much to eat for 24 hours, afterwards I did see one thing that I wanted to try. I originally had hoped to try Indian Fry Bread, fried Twinkies, and fried Oreos. But I struck out on all 3. I don't want to call the fry bread we ate real fry bread - I still say I haven't had it. I did not see any fried Twinkies. Same with the Oreos - I found none. But I did see this:



Fried Snickers! So I got one:








To make the Snickers, the guy unwrapped a bar, shoved a stick in it, dipped it in batter, and put it in the oil for a couple of seconds. End result was sort of like corn dog coating wrapped around a melty-ooey-gooey-nougatty-nutty center. I got through 3/4 of it, took some photos, and threw away the remains. Why didn't I try some good fry bread?!?

But the day wasn't a total loss. Bodog.com had odds and was taking bets on 3 different wagers surrounding the Krystal Square Off III World Hamburger Eating Championship held in Chattanooga, TN this same day. One wager was who'd win. Another was would a contestant eat more than 70 hamburgers. Another was would the total eaten by all the competitors be over 645. Each bet had a $50 max. I bet $44 on #2 and #3. Both won - Kobayashi ate 97, and the total eaten was 740 or something. In 8 minutes!

7 Comments:

Blogger steakbellie said...

I'm itching to try fried coke. Nice write-up as always. I'm pissed they dont count everybodies totals still.

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My jaw still hurts. This was also one of my least favorite. I don't think anyone walked away from the table with a full stomach after the contest. This may be the last one they do with fry bread anyway.

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sorry to hear you guys encountered crappy fry bread. when done right, it is quite tasty! better luck next time.

 
Blogger Russell "The Black Hole" Blackwell said...

I agree with you skinnyboy on the "not full" condition. Later Saturday nightI had about6 1/2 pounds of Mexican food, plus drinks of course.

It was a shame, because unlike the Nathan's, here in Arizona back in June, I had actually had a little notice and time to train, (a mere 6 days, but enough) The shame is that I came to win,, and planned to give it my all, limited by stomach capacity and consumption rate alone, yet unknowingly was anchored by my struggeling ability to chew what felt and tasted a lot like leather.

Skinnyboy, I also agree with you about another point; my jaw was sore for a short bit after.

Interestingly enough I had 5 1/2 fry breads left over but was very neat about it. Coincidentally I also placed myself at 5th. It fits because we both were on record with 4 1/2.

I will admit thoug that that number could have tied us at 6th as well, (depending on the other contestants' results).

I hope to see familiar, as well as, new faces at the next competition I go to.

As an extra note, when reading an article in the Arizona Republic, I came across a line saying that a local had eaten six local fast food burgers two days prior to the event to train.

My guess is that that is a lot for some people, but it made me laugh. I only get 6 if I am not very hungry. Normally 8-12 is more my number, that is on that increasingly rare occasion that I consume fast food burgers.

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Skinny Boy, remember me looking over at you mouth full in disbelief on how hard it was to chew the rubber/leather bread they gave us. I was laughing about it on the way home. Good job Skinny Boy! You got me on this one. PS I will never do the Fry Bread again!!
El Toro

 
Blogger Dave S. said...

Damn, that deep fried Snickers looks disgustingly good! How much did you win off your wagers?

Maybe I should start better on CE...if I'm not going to make any money at the table, at least I can make some money on the side!!

 
Blogger A-Bomb said...

Crap, I forgot to give shout outs to the eaters who scored -- jed, erb you guys put in terrific performances. Man that fry bread was tough tough tough. I feel sort of bad for the concession people who made a few hundred fry breads. All together we ate maybe 100 or so. And Steak, I'm with you - there should be full results.

 

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