Are the Competitive Eating Gods Calling?

This last Sunday, for circumstances undisclosed I found myself at a large hospital in Seattle called Swedish Medical Center. The reason I was at the hospital is not important I was there for a family member.

After spending all day at the hospital and eating three meals from the cafeteria I had enough, and I needed some relief from the vending machines. To my delight, the vending machines were like a whole food court by themselves as they were the only vending machines for the entire hospital complex. There were six vending machines to choose from so I closely examined each machine. When I came to the fifth machine to my utter shock and dismay, they were offering Krstal burgers.

Krystal burgers in a vending machine in a hospital in Seattle? You have got to be shitting me.

There isn't a Krystal burger West of Texas and they don't even sell frozen Krystal burgers anywhere. Trust me, during the Krystal Square-Off qualifying season I was trying desperately to get my hands on some frozen Krystals or even White Castle burgers to no avail. So I was starting to get a little suspicious about my sanity but trust me they were there, check out the pics...





In honor of the unexpected and unexplainable occurrence, I had a few Krystal burgers and they even tasted like Krystals!

Well, I moved on cautiously until about four hours later when on my way home from the hospital at 2:00 am I stopped at the local market for…I don’t know more food. As I walked through the doors the market was empty but there was a large sign in the front display staring me down that read “Wookey Hole” (cave aged cheddar) in large orange letters (See pic below).



Just one week earlier I would have thought nothing of the sign but wouldn’t you know it that just a few days earlier the first ever big IFOCE sanctioned eating contest in the UK, a Minced Pie eating contest was held at the Wookey Hole caves in Somerset, UK. Totally random right? I mean who has ever even heard of Wookey Hole? Sonya Thomas destroyed the competition in this contest but that’s not the point.

I had to chuckle at the irony of these things happening to me but the point of it all is that to the untrained or non-believing eyes these two random competitive eating references could seem insignificant. But many great discoveries and inventions have been founded by people who had a keen eye and who refused to ignore curious and seemingly unexplainable anomalies. Take the invention of the microwave for example – one day in 1946, a Raytheon engineer named Dr. Percy Spencer was working for the government testing radar technology when he stopped in front of a magnetron tube which was generating high-frequency radio waves. As Spencer stood in front of the magnetron he realized strangely that a chocolate bar that was in his pocket had melted. Spencer was intrigued by this occurrence so he decided to test other foods. He proceeded to place a bag of popcorn seeds in front of the magnetron, and to the utter shock of those wathcing, the seeds popped! The invention of the microwave followed at Raytheon.

To me, there is no doubt that what I experienced was more than coincidence and undeniably meaningful signs in the same ilk of that chocolate bar melting in Doc Spencer’s pocket.

So the question is, what should I make of these signs? Are the competitive eating Gods trying to send me a message? If so, what message are they sending me? Will I win the Krystal Square Off or be chosen to travel overseas to kick everyone’s ass at Wookey Hole next year? It’s possible. But I have my doubts that the message being sent is that deliberate. I have to search deeper for answers. I think the most reasonable thing I can do is run some tests on myself, challenge myself, see if I can harness the energy and we’ll see what happens.

Haiku Contest, Homer says D'oh

I posted on Eatfeats as well. I suppose I won't enter the contest (See Dec. 17th) in an act of vanity afterall.

If I could I would (Steakbellie form)...

You caught me offguard (Haiku)
Momo is ready!
Tremont Six Four Seven calls
frozen by red light

Am I Too White for MTV?

In a recent conversation I had with an IFOCE official I was told that I was not chosen to appear in a hot dog eating exhibition on an upcoming episode of MTV’s dating show “Next” because I did not fit MTV’s preferred demographic – they chose Arturo Rios instead. Hmm, how can I change demographics? Or maybe demographics was just a code word for ‘not ranked high enough’. I don’t know that would actually make me feel better, at least I have a chance to influence and change rankings but my whiteness is hard to change.

A New Path for The Road to Nathan's

My Blog will change.

No longer will I write merely in observatory re-telling of competitive eating events and results (although this will still be part of my blog). I intend to be a bit more open and ethereal, more aloof and reflective. I hope to raise more questions and present more answers to myself and readers. This won't be a cosmic shift, I just want to open it up more, create more posts, utilize more of my creativity, and hopefully present a more telling and wholistic picture of who I am in the world of competitive eating.

Competitive eating is both figuratively and realistically an internal self-exploration for me and in my opinion, if you are a professional eater and you haven't learned anything new about what's inside of you, than you need to start doing something different. I'd like to share more of what I have experienced and learned, so here goes....

A Soothing Pre-Game Warmup Routine

Prior to an eating competition the nerves and adrenaline are always pumping high so as a way to relax I like to crank up the Smooth Jazz and sing along. My spoken word and lyrics may be a bit incomprehensible but I am putting myself in a Zen-like state where I can't really be responsible for what comes out.

I was able to capture a bit of my warmup in the video below en route to the Posole contest in New Mexico while driving on Interstate 40....