There are people who dream about eating 82 slices of delicious pizza, and then there are people who go out there and make that dream come true. While eating 500 Peeps used to be a personal project, today it can earn you the title"Champion."
Not everyone is on board with the concept of eating contests and think they simply exemplified the gluttony of our country. But most people have a morbid fascination with seeing how much food humans can consume in an astonishingly short period of time, which is why millions of people watch the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship every July 4.
But hot dogs are one thing. Hot peppers? That's another. But that's what we're talking about today — weird eating contests — that aren't for the faint of heart or stomach.
The National Harbor World Peeps Eating Championship
Peeps are a divisive confection — a sugary marshmallow coated in sugar and shaped to look like a duck or any other Easter-type animal. There’s really not much more there than fluff, but how much fluff does it take to fill you up?
Head over to National Harbor, Maryland in April and try to win the contest yourself. But first you’re going to have to defeat Matt Stonie, who ate 255 Peeps in five minutes.
Held at the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans as part of the New Orleans Oyster Festival every June, the contest raises funds to support the coast. But how extreme does the eating get? Let’s just say that Sonya Thomas consumed 46 dozen oysters in 10 minutes.
That's a whopping 552 oysters or 55 oysters per minute.
Any contest with the word “Puckerbutt” in the name means business. For a bit of background, Carolina reaper chili peppers measure over 1.5 million on the Scoville heat unit scale — making them the hottest peppers in the world. Most people couldn't eat one. Wayne Algenio of Jamaica, Queens broke the record after he consumed 22 of these dangerous peppers and lived to tell the tale.
"I went in with the mentality that I was going to go all out, but I did not know I was going to win," Algenio said. "It felt amazing, [but] it was in my head, 'I'm never doing this again.'"
Technically this isn't an eating contest because Matt Stonie was only racing the clock, but his accomplishment certainly merits a mention on any competitive eating list. Smithfield and Stonie partnered up to help kick off the racing season by seeing how much bacon Stonie could eat in five minutes.
Stonie didn't disappoint, stuffing more pork in his mouth than a person should eat in a year — 182 slices. That weighs more than 11 pounds.
We all love to celebrate National Donut Day in June with one of the deep fried pastries. But in Philadelphia, contestants try and unsuccessfully unseat champion Joey Chestnut, who ate 257 powdered Hostess Donettes in six minutes. For those keeping score at home, that’s roughly 16,000 calories in six minutes. He won $4,000.
A gyoza is a Japanese dish consisting of wonton wrappers stuffed with pork and cabbage, and they’re part of the Nisei Week Japanese Festival held every August to raise money to support Japanese American cultural foundations.
But how many do you have to eat to win the contest? Matt Stonie ate 323 Day-Lee Foods Gyoza in 10 minutes, obliterating the second place contestant who “only” ate 243.
