Do you like fruitcake? I mean, really like fruitcake? It won't bring him the same prestige as winning back the Mustard Yellow Belt, but when Takeru Kobayashi set his sights on breaking the record for competitive fruitcake consumption, everyone expected him to breeze to victory. Yet for all of his talent, the Man from Japan was unable eat enough fruitcake fast enough to beat the existing record set by IFOCE queen Sonya Thomas. Kobayashi, who admitted he had never eaten fruitcake before making a run at the record, said the consistency of the infamously inedible dessert proved to be his undoing, noting "it was very difficult to eat because it was so dense".Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I have nothing but the utmost respect for competetive eaters and their grueling sport. Should you ever wish to get a look at the event and the men and women who put their bodies to the ultimate test, I highly recommend reading Eat This Book by Ryan Nerz to get an idea what sort of physical and mental training it takes to make it to the top of the competitive eating world, and why the fittest (like the tiny Sonya Thomas and famously slender Kobayashi) triumph over the fattest.
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I went to the Coney Island hot dog eating contest in 2007, and actually met Kobayashi and a few of the other competitive eaters... I was amazed at how skinny Kobayashi was (and short)-- Crazy Legs Conti, another competitive eater, was telling me that skinnier people actually have an advantage in the sport, because they don't have fat weighing down their stomachs as much from expanding. Talk about an unexpected advantage!
BTW, found my way over here from your comment on my site, Blogadilla- glad you liked the hand santas. Don't be a stranger around the Tijuana of the Internet! :)
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