If you don’t know this man, first you should watch the video below.  You might not want to eat hot dogs for a while though.

In the video, he had set the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating record at 66 dogs in 12 minutes, but this past July 4th, he broke his own record which is now [...]]]>

If you don’t know this man, first you should watch the video below.  You might not want to eat hot dogs for a while though.

In the video, he had set the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating record at 66 dogs in 12 minutes, but this past July 4th, he broke his own record which is now at a whopping 68 dogs in 10 minutes.

This past weekend, he came to Little Tokyo to attempt to break his own record of 231 gyozas in 10 minutes, set last year.  It’s the third year running of this modest eating event, but it was able to capture a very sizeable crowd at the Nisei festival.  Young and old, Japanese and gaijins, gyoza lovers and those grossed out by professional eating, all gathered around to watch the spectacle under the big tent.  There were even some loud, drunken frat-type boys in the back–official groupies of Major League Eating.  I walked about a mile each way from my downtown apartment to capture the action and witness Joey Chestnut’s domination in person.

First, let’s introduce the Nisei Week Queen and her court of princesses.  They have the job of bringing out the plates of gyoza to all the contestants.  These lovely ladies are here to provide moral support and cheer on the contestants, while at the same time serving them their demise in pot sticker form.

On your mark.. and GO!

Joey Chestnut is the second one from left on upper row.  Everyone else, well, thanks for competing.  I believe he beat the next highest up (big man in the blue cowboy hat) by over 50 gyozas.

There’s a table set up on the bottom left for the previous year’s Nisei week princess court.  All of them make up one team of eaters and put down a decent amount of gyozas combined.

While most of the amateur competitors pick up gyozas one by one, Chestnut uses the more advanced technique of grabbing a handful, squeezing them together, and then shoveling it down his pipe.  He probably eats a third of the plate in five bites.  The man is unreal.

Check in on the ladies’ effort, and they did pretty well.  Better than most of the amateurs, but not quite pro level.  Maybe the soy sauce makes the gyozas go down better.  The girl next to Joey Chestnut, also one of the former princesses I believe, brought her own dipping sauce for the competition.

Then again, maybe no amount of sauce can help THAT amount of gyozas go down.  That’s the face of “uh oh, what have I done to myself?”

More looks of defeat among the competitors.  Apparently, the word “Gurgitators” was invented and coined just for this sport to reference professional eaters.  Sometimes, though, they’re also called “Regurgitators”, as one unfortunate combatant was consumed by gyozas in the end.  On stage, unfortunately.  Wasn’t pretty.

Did I win?  Did I break the record?  I think my gyoza baby is starting to kick!  Mr. Chestnut is just remarkably cool compared to the rest of the crowd after putting down more gyozas than most everyone eats in a full year.

To the victor goes the spoils.  In this case, the spoils is more plates of gyoza.  The extras were passed around in the crowd.  I sampled one, which was pretty tasty.  I’m sure it helps a food eating competition when the property is something that you would fancy digesting.

No, he didn’t top his old record.  He didn’t even come close, actually.  He was short by almost 50 gyozas (two more plates), which only makes that number even more ridiculous.  Still, what an impressive display of domination.

When you’re nursing a Sunday morning “headache”, it’s definitely not the most welcome sound outside your window.  This, however, only reminded me that Little Tokyo’s annual Japanese-American celebration, Nisei Week, has snuck up on me.

For those that missed it over the weekend, there was a two-hour parade through Little Tokyo on [...]]]> Please stop banging those Taiko drums…

When you’re nursing a Sunday morning “headache”, it’s definitely not the most welcome sound outside your window.  This, however, only reminded me that Little Tokyo’s annual Japanese-American celebration, Nisei Week, has snuck up on me.

For those that missed it over the weekend, there was a two-hour parade through Little Tokyo on Sunday evening.  It featured a ton of floats, traditional dance, taiko drumming, anime characters, and the lovely nisei-week court.  The crowd was great and the atmosphere was very fun and inviting.  It definitely reminded me of my summer days in Japan and attending these matsuri’s (summer festivals).

Nisei Week is a whole weeklong celebration of Japanese culture and Japanese-American community residing in Southern California.  There will be other events such as traditional dance practice and other cultural events (including a rubik’s cube contest, for some reason).  The noteworthy highlight of the week for food fanatics to enjoy will be the Gyoza eating competition featuring headliner competitive eater Joey Chestnut.

This Saturday afternoon you can spot “Jaws” try to take down his record set last year with 231 gyozas eaten in 10 minutes.  He tells Downtown News that he’s trying for 250 this year!  Will he do it?  I’m totally eager to see him try.  Pride of San Jose right there.

I’m just hoping there won’t be an encore of Taiko drums early in the morning.

Nisei Week Japanese Festival
August 15-23, 2009