Here's interesting news--there's going to be a qualifier for the
July 4 Nathan's classic in San Francisco! Here's what I got in the
e-mail--but they don't mention which Century Theater it's going to
take place at! Ack! Actually, there's technically no Century
Theater in SF proper--there's one in Daly City and one in South San
Francisco. Hmmm...

Nathan's Qualifier Added!
5/26/2005
An official qualifier for the 2005 Nathan's Famous International
Fourth of July will occur on at 12 noon on June 4th at Century
Theatres in San Francisco CA. Registration strictly through
IFOCE.com. Additional details to follow.


In related news, here's an interesting recent article from
sfgate.com, the website for the local San Francisco Chronicle
paper. Check out the original site for some interesting links.


ASIAN POP: Superchomp
Korean-born Sonya Thomas is the No. 1 ranked female competitive
eater in the USA.
Amy Moon, SF Gate
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2005/05/26/eat.DTL

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Sonya Thomas is thin. At 5 feet 5 inches and 99 pounds, the
Alexandria, Va., resident is one of those people about whom you
think, "She must eat like a bird." And, in fact, she does, but only
because birds supposedly eat twice their body weight in food.

Not surprisingly, her name notwithstanding, Thomas is Korean. Have
you ever gone out for Korean BBQ? How did you feel when you left the
table? Full? I thought so. (I once asked a Korean friend whether her
parents approved of her white boyfriend (now husband), and she
sighed and said, "Well, he's a good eater, so that was good.")

Thomas, South Korean born, 37 years old and single, is the No. 1
female competitive eater in the United States. She is ranked second
in the world, with 22 world titles, and regularly outeats men four
and five times her size in contests held throughout the year,
earning the self-appointed moniker the Black Widow."

For those unfamiliar with this sport, competitive eating is just
what it sounds like: Contestants sit down in front of a huge pile of
baked beans or matzo balls or pulled-pork sandwiches, the timer
starts and they eat as much as they can, as fast as they can, until
the time is up.

Lest you think this is some cheesy county-fair sideshow, know that
competitive eating has become a hugely popular sport (a designation
some observers object to) with its own governing body, the
International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE).

The number of contests has grown from 12 eating events in 1997 to
more than 100 last year, 20,000 people show up to watch the Wingbowl
each year and Nathan's Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Championship, the
Super Bowl of competitive eating, appeared on the Jumbotron in Times
Square last year. According to Richard Shea of the IFOCE,
competitive eating is the fastest-growing sport in the world.

In 2002, Fox aired a two-hour prime time television special
called "The Glutton Bowl," in which food was dropped from a trash
can on a platform into a huge bowl 20 feet below. The world's top
eaters gorged on a lip-smacking smorgasbord of delicacies, including
mayonnaise, butter and cow tongue.

Competitive eating has spawned its own celebrities as well. The No.
1 eater in the world, Takeru "the Tsunami" Kobayashi, won the last
Nathan's contest by eating 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes, doubling the
previous record. The 5-foot-7-inch, 145-pound Kobayashi also blew
away the elephantine competition on "The Glutton Bowl" by
outscarfing them and wrapping up the proceedings by slurping down 50-
plus cow brains.

The diminutive Thomas is second in the world only to the similarly
slender gobblemeister, the latest and greatest in a tradition of
Japanese eaters who pose an ever increasing challenge to American
eating supremacy. (The Coney Island title went to a Japanese eater
in 1997, and the Japanese have owned it ever since).

On the IFOCE Web site is a proclamation: "There is an century-old
prophecy within the competitive-eating community, dismissed by most,
that foretells the rise of the One Eater, a woman who will electrify
America's gurgitators and lead them to international victory once
again. Like Joan of Arc before her, this eater will be slender of
stature but mighty in strength. In recent months, the prophecy has
been mentioned more and more frequently as the eaters have watched
Sonya Thomas excel in nearly every contest she enters."

As the summer season approaches for Nathan's qualifiers -- smaller
regional hot-dog-eating contests whose winners qualify to compete in
the championships on July 4 and take a crack at winning the coveted
mustard belt -- those who care about these sorts of things may be
wondering whether Kobayashi will retain his title, and maybe a few
will also wonder whether the teeny-tiny Thomas could do the
seemingly impossible and bring gluttonous glory back to the U.S.A.

Her record speaks for itself. Some of Thomas's recent
accomplishments include:

-- March 20, 2005 -- 46 dozen (552) oysters in 10 minutes. -- Feb.
12, 2005 -- 25 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. -- Jan. 22,
2005 -- one 9-pound burger with cheese in 48 minutes, 10 seconds. --
Nov. 27, 2004 -- 52 hard-boiled eggs in five minutes. - Sept. 29,
2004 -- 48 soft-shell chicken tacos in 11 minutes. - Sept. 5, 2004 --
5.09 pounds of buffalo wings (162 wings) in 12 minutes -- Aug. 21,
2004 -- 9.76 pounds of lobster meat (38 soft-shell lobsters) in 12
minutes. -- July 4, 2004 -- 32 Nathan's hot dogs and buns in 12
minutes, a new women's world record (and American record)
How It All Began

Thomas, who grew up poor in South Korea, was born competitive. "I
hate to lose," she said. "I hate to lose." Thomas moved to the
United States in 1997 and settled in Alexandria. Back then, she had
little else in her life besides a job, and her spirit continued to,
well, hunger for more. It was so bad, Thomas said, that she became
depressed and even considered suicide. But everything changed in
2002, when, on television one day, she saw Nathan's Coney Island Hot
Dog Eating Championship. She knew in a split second it was for
her. "It was my dream, " she said. "I just wanted to be there. They
looked like celebrities because they were on TV eating."

To get there, she had to win a qualifying regional contest. But
Thomas had no experience with eating fast, and she didn't normally
eat hot dogs, so she bought two from 7-Eleven and set a timer. One
minute passed, and she was still on her first dog. "Oh, my God. Yes,
one minute," she said. "That was Christmastime, Christmas Day 2002.
I say, 'I can't finish one hot dog in one minute. How can I be
there?'

"And then I give up," she continued. "'OK,' I say, 'I'm not going to
try. If I cannot do well, then there's no point in losing. I don't
like to lose.'" But she watched the video of the contest again. "And
then I saw Takeru Kobayashi -- No. 1 in the world. When I look at
him, he's so small, like me, and look at him -- he's a human being.
He's human. Why can't I?" A month later, she decided to give it
another try. She ate 15 hot dogs in 12 minutes and thought, "OK, now
I'm ready."

Thomas entered the Molly Pitcher Qualifier in New Jersey.
Jason "Crazy Legs" Conti (ranked 17th in the United States), who
also competed that day, remembers her appearance. "I did not notice
the petite Korean-American woman patiently waiting for the contest
to begin. No one else noticed her, either," he wrote in Topic
magazine. "And then this tiny, tiny woman named Sonya Thomas
delicately put away her 18th hot dog and bun, smiled and won."

Thomas said, "That first eating contest, I was nervous, but I won
that one -- 18 hot dogs with bun in 12 minutes."

Winning the qualifier meant she was eligible for the big show:
Nathan's. Conti wrote, "On the Fourth of July, 2003, Sonya appeared
nervous. This, the ultimate eating extravaganza, was only her second
contest. I don't think anyone knew what to expect of the Tinkerbell-
size lady sandwiched between two 400-pound men. Sonya looked like
she would be more at home at a beauty pageant than at an all-you-can-
eat event.

"With a dazzling smile and demure wave, she calmly and neatly ate 25
hot dogs and buns, placing fourth and setting a new female record,"
he concluded.

Thomas simply said, "Then I move up. One week later, I ate 25. Like
moving up, you know. Improve myself. Every time, I just improve
myself."

The Regimen

The eating technique various so-called gurgitators use is a source
of much speculation. Some competitive eaters religiously watch
videos of Kobayashi to analyze his style so they can improve theirs.
One secret to fast hot dog eating is dunking the bun so it's easier
to swallow and you don't need to spend time drinking water from a
cup between bites. The hot dogs can't go down whole, either. "You
have to chew a little, because if you don't chew it, you can choke,"
said Thomas. (Apparently, Kobayashi swears by the "Solomon
approach," breaking hot dogs and buns in half first.) "You have to
have a strong jaw, too," said Thomas. "It gets tired, your jaw."

You also want to guard against the involuntary act that can shame
you and get you disqualified from an event, variously known as
a "reversal of fortune," a "Roman incident," "urges contrary to
swallowing" or, more commonly, throwing up. According to Thomas,
people tend to vomit because they're eating so fast, they're not
paying attention. "You have to try to get time for burps, and
belching, to make yourself comfortable, and then you can continue to
do it," she said.

Many observers subscribe to Ed Krachie's "belt of fat" theory, which
states that thin people have an advantage because abdominal fat can
inhibit stomach expansion. In 1998, competitive eater Krachie wrote
a journal article -- rejected, not surprisingly, by many scientific
journals in the United States and Canada -- called "Can Abdominal
Fat Act as a Restrictive Agent on Stomach Expansion? An Exploration
of the Impact of Adipose Tissue on Competitive Eating."

Suffice it to say that the very top eaters are slim but the majority
of players are gargantuan folks used to packing away whole chickens
and cakes and demolishing all-you-can-eat buffets with a great deal
of pleasure and a modicum of pride as well.

As for pre-event training, Kobayashi supposedly shrinks his stomach
by running, then expands it with cabbage and water to teach the
organ to distend. He is also said to eat only one huge multihour
meal a day.

Thomas follows a similar regimen. According to her, when she lived
in Korea, she was heavier than she is now by 30 pounds, all due to
her diet and her job as a typist: "I never move my body." And she
ate all day. "I don't drink any water, I just eat lots of junk food,
like snacks all the time," Thomas recalled. "I don't eat meals. When
I go to eat a meal, I eat a little bit, not much. But I was
constantly eating snacks."

Nowadays, Thomas' routine couldn't be more different from her habits
of old. Every day, she hits the treadmill for 1 1/2 hours. "Walking
fast on incline, high incline," she said. "Before work. Never after
work. I'm too tired."

She eats only one meal a day, from 6 to 9 p.m., generally at her
beloved Burger King. A normal meal for her? "Chicken Whopper,
grilled chicken, right?" she said. "Without mayonnaise. I don't eat
mayonnaise. I don't eat any fatty things."

Is that because you don't want to gain weight?

"Yes, I have to watch out, too, right?"

Really?! You're 99 pounds.

"Oh, no! Even though you're 99 pounds, you have to watch out because
if you have a habit of putting on mayonnaise all the time, then you
have to have that. So I have to say to myself, 'Anytime I eat a
sandwich, I don't want to eat mayonnaise, but I want ketchup, or
mustard.'"

She does allow herself some leeway: "But one thing, OK? One thing, I
love Burger King french fries. I love it. I cannot skip my fries. I
have to eat them every day. Really. I eat large french fries with
that Chicken Whopper. Every day. And then a five-piece Chicken
Tenders. And then I drink 42-ounce -- Burger King king-size cups --
Diet Cokes, about three, with my meal."

Do you think this is healthy?

"That's my style."

You feel good, though? You feel healthy?

"Yeah, I feel good. Really."

The Circuit

So, does Thomas pal around with all the other eaters she competes
against -- big guys four times her size with names like Bill "El
Wingador" Simmons, Eric "Badlands" Booker and Dale "Mouth o' the
South" Boone? She claims she's not a social person. "I don't like
it -- too boring for me," she said. "Me is always my way. I want to
do it my way. I'm very selfish; I'm very stubborn. That's my
personality."

Her way, however, appears to be working quite well for her. Thomas'
appetite is legendary. And she works it. After the lobster-eating
contest, in which she blew away reigning champ Kevin "the Boss"
Cross in his home state of Maine by eating 9.76 pounds of lobsters
(38 of them), she was asked whether she could eat more and she
replied, "Yes, but something else -- not a lobster." After winning
the first Turducken eating championship, scarfing eight plates of
chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey in 12 minutes, she
remarked, "I don't really like turkey, but this was so good that I
could eat more." And radio personality Drew Garabo of WTKS, in
Orlando, Fla., chronicles how Thomas went head to head on-air with
his producer and an unnamed listener in a quesadilla-eating contest.
Thomas blew them both out of the water by eating 31 1/2 quesadillas
in five minutes. Then she settled into the interview with a large
bucket of popcorn. Remember, she weighs 99 pounds.

But putting it away isn't always a piece of cake for her. She won
one contest by eating 11 pounds of cheesecake with coffee on an
empty stomach in nine minutes. "Oh, my God, I was so sick!" she
said. (By her own admission, she did end up suffering a reversal of
fortune after this one -- the only time ever.)

But the hardest was the recent Big Daddy Barrick Burger contest,
hosted by Las Vegas' Plaza Hotel, which she won by eating a 9-pound
burger in 48 minutes. Thomas said it was the toughest because of the
quantity of food. Now, 46 dozen oysters may seem like a larger
amount, but, according to Thomas, the burger was much harder because
she ate the bun first, dunking it in water, according to her usual
style. Big mistake. After about a pitcherful of water, she still had
to eat the meat itself (more than 7 pounds). She said that the
combined weight of food and water is probably 17 or 18 pounds.

"After I eat that burger, my stomach has no room," she said. "After
every other eating contest, I still have room, I still can drink
water, I still can eat ice cream. Even though I ate 46 Crystal
burgers in eight minutes, afterward, I went to the food court, I ate
Chinese food. Because I had more room." Next year, with the Barrick
Burger, she said, "Meat first, bun later."

The best thing Thomas ever ate? "Oh, man, oysters and chicken
wings," she said. "Oysters. Easy to eat, and I like them. Chicken
wings are so much fun, and I like them, too. But my favorite thing,
I think, is hard-boiled eggs."

Ooh, that would be hard.

"Oh, no, it's not hard. Easy for me. Other people cannot do it. Only
me."

Why do you think that is?

"Think about this -- 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes and 40
seconds. Do you think other people can do it? They don't want to
try. No."

What's your secret?

"I think I love to eat eggs. OK, here's my technique: I bite a
little bite, one or two bites, and drink water, drink a little bit.
Zip, you know? And constantly do it. So easy for me. I think that's
my specialty. Hard-boiled eggs is my specialty."

The Future

Sonya Thomas doesn't live by gluttony alone. She still works full
time as a manager for Burger King, even though she is the highest
earner in the U.S. eating community. "Right now, I'm good. I'm good
at making money," she said. "It's OK, but not enough for a living."
And she says she'd do it even if no money were involved. "I love
doing it because I can win," Thomas added. "That's my hobby. Makes
me happy."

Besides, she loves her job too much to quit. "You know why I work
fast food?" she said. "I want to be the best manager, too. When I'm
working, I work so fast, nobody can beat me." Her allegiance to
Burger King is the stuff a corporate ad exec dreams about. "I love
working at Burger King," she added. "I don't like McDonald's food.
No way. I love Burger King food."

So, what are her goals? "My first goal is, I want to have my own
Burger King, just one store," Thomas said. "I really want it. I can
do it." She thinks it'll take her 10 years to save up enough money --
a half million dollars in cash and a million more for the property
to buy one franchise. Her second goal is to be the No. 1 eater in
the world: She wants to beat Takeru Kobayashi. "I have to practice,"
she said. "I have to practice more technique. Then. I don't know."

Thomas thinks she has a chance in a short contest like an eight- to
10-minute one because then she can focus on technique. "See, if I
swallow fast, then I can compete with him," she said. "But my
swallow is not fast enough, that's the only thing. And stomach
capacity -- he can stretch his stomach so big, 5 pounds, 20 pounds.
He can handle that, his stomach, but me? I don't think so."

You can bet she'll put every ounce of steely determination she has
into trying, though. "Koreans care about winning," she told
me. "Korean people, their mind. Do you see that? In all sports, they
try to be the top one. They care only about top one; they don't care
about second one, third one. You know, it's Korean style. That's why
I learned that, too. In my life, I have to be top one -- you know,
that's me. I cannot take second place, third place."

She might be Korean in spirit, but Thomas loves living in
America. "Yeah, I love it," she said. "More freedom. You can do
anything you want. In America, there's so much freedom. I like it."

Her Web site says it all: "And beneath what you may see on the
surface, know this: My Yankee Doodle Dandy heart proudly pumps red,
white and blue blood to the beat of "God Bless America." One day ...
one day!"

One day? Could that one day be July 4? If so, Takeru Kobayashi had
best beware.

God Bless America, indeed.