Tis really the season of gluttony
OPINION almost a kilogram of chocolate.
Bertoletti faces stiff competition from Joey Chestnut, who has eaten 141 boiled eggs, 20 23g corned beef sandwiches, and 43 grilled cheese sandwiches in an allotted time.
The eating association runs regional and national competitions in various categories, with winners eating unbelievable numbers of hot dogs, bratwursts, meatballs, pigs feet, shrimps, cows brains, Mars bars, and oysters or vast quantities of watermelons, asparagus, baked beans, mayonnaise, frozen yoghurt, or icecream.
Rules are strict so that the food must be eaten in 10 minutes, ‘‘chipmunking’’ (stuffing cheeks on the final bell) is banned, and vomiters are disqualified. Prizes of up to $5000 are offered.
Big eating is a spectator sport, attracting huge crowds and the finals get nationwide TV coverage. On rare occasions competitors have choked to death or died of heart attacks on stage. Tut-tutting do-gooders claim that the competitions promote obesity and set a bad example to youth.
Even so, today’s competitive eaters hardly compare with some prodigious historical eaters. Most famous of these was the French soldier Tarrare. In the Dictionnaire des sciences medicales (vol xxi) a Dr Percy tells that when Tarrare arrived in Paris in 1788 at age 17, he could eat 10.9kg of meat and a basketful of apples in a day. He joined the 9th Regiment of the Hussars where he was given quadruple rations with pickings of waste.
For eating a mass of corks and other indigestibles, Tarrare was hospitalised. There, he almost swallowed the surgeon’s watch chain and seals and also stole and ate poultices from the dispensary. On one occasion Tarrare ate a whole meal laid out for 15 German workers and another time ate 13.6kg of liver and lights. He ate snakes, lizards and eels whole. At his death Tarrare’s stomach ‘‘was in a very diseased condition’’.
In the 1700s, England’s Lord Bedford wagered Lord Barrymore 1000 guineas that he could not eat a live cat. Practicing by eating kittens, Barrymore won his bet. English sporting annals have records of an Irishman devouring five fox cubs and a showman who could grind large stones and rocks in his massive jaws.
Some present-day freaks can break bicycles into small pieces and eat them but these gluttons are of no interest to the Competitive Eating Association
Sovereign against the vice of gluttony is the virtue of temperance. Readers are recommended to write temperance into their New Year resolutions. The trick is to include an escape clause to cover the next Christmas period.
Buon appetito.