Tamales Results - Woodlands, TX - 5/5/07

Berryhill Baja Grill Tamales Results (IFOCE rank in paranthesis):

12 minute contest:

1st - Joey "Jaws" Chestnut (2) - 53.5 tamales, $2500, 18 points
2nd - Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti (3) - 51, $1000, 12 points
3rd - Humble Bob Shoudt (5) - 45, $500, 6 points
4th - Chip "the Phenom" Simpson (6) - 39, 4 points
5th - Erik the red Denmark (14) - 27, 3 points
6th - Nasty Nathan Biller (NR) - 21, 2 points
7th - Brickhouse Braunstein (36) - 20, 2 points


Joey, Pat and I eat and drink at different heights

Everyone in the contest celebrated Cinco de Mayo in pain; in honor of Mexico defeating the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Despite the fact that Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated in Mexico, except heavily in the city Puebla,Puebla, and it is not (contrary to popular belief) the Mexican Independence Day (celebrated on September 16, who knew?), we in America and particularly Texas want to eat and drink in celebration. Well, mostly we just want to drink but on this day we ate tamales - heavy, seasoned beef stuffed, starchy, lukewarm tamales.

I love tamales, I really do. In fact, I highly recommend that if you happen to spend a late night at the bars in albuequerque, NM, that you make a point to stop by a street vendor and grab at least two steaming hot tamales in the corn husk and eat them drunkily in the middle of the street. But as eating contests go, you have to cook a ton (almost literally) of food at once, keep it warm (not hot), and throw them all on plates so they are ready to eat.

What am I getting at? I lost track, oh yeah, contest tamales are tough to get down. Not tough because they are really chewy or require a lot of jaw strength, but tough because the flavor, texture, and volume overwhelms you quickly. Not to mention the tamales for this contest do legitimately weigh 3.5 oz and it is virtually impossible to swallow them without the aid of mass amounts of liquids - I understand why there were a number of reversals in last years contest. I estimate that I probaly drank around 5 cups of 16 oz liquids during the contest and I imagine that Joey, Pat and Bob probably almost drank double that to get all of those tamales down.

In the end, this contest was all about speed and ultimately capacity. I think that is why you saw many of the top contenders that will be at Nathan's this year competing in this contest - the numbers will be comparable and this was a good heat check. 27 for me is not bad but still the gap is too much for me to be satisfied between me and the sports elite 8. I expect my HDB number to be better.

Pat definitely had at least a 4 or 5 tamale lead early on, he noted that the tamales seemed slower this year than last year - possibly due to the fact that the contest was late in the day, the temperature was a little colder, and thus the tamales were cooled and did not hold their form well. Joey eventually overtook Pat in the last couple of minutes. Humble Bob's 45 should not be overlooked either, that is a huge number and Bob should gain a lot of confidence from this contest going in to his Nathan's qualifier. Chip was visibly upset by the result and he did not stick around to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (the American way) with the rest of us. I know Chip's expectations were higher and I respect the fact that he just wants to win and 4th place paid nothing this year. Nasty Nathan Biller showed he could do some damage this year on the circuit and Brickhouse is obviously this years top contender for most dedicated journeyman.

Berryhill took care of us and they put us on stage in the middle of the festival in the Woodlands where an estimated crowd of around 5,000 people watched us eat under the lights - that was pretty sweet.

Cheers to Mexico for giving us tamales and tequilla, and allowing us to eat and drink in their honor!

Click here for the TexasObserver wirteup of the contest