ID Spring Roll Contest in Seattle - 4/29

I had the privilege of attending an event last night in Seattle that involved an eating contest, the ID Springroll Eating Contest. There haven't been any professional eating contests in Seattle since I started my eating career in 2005, only amateur contests, so I love to see at least something in Seattle. And this was a spring roll contest at an event for a good cause to support Seattle's Chinatown International District community development projects.

I came to support the locals and to see how The Stranger reporter Paul Constant would do after meeting with him a couple weeks back to give him an interview for a story that will come out next week and some pointers on how he could prepare for the contest. Paul had some history winning a no hands pie eating contest a few years back and when we ordered some spring rolls and ate a few of them quickly, I could see that he was going to do well in the contest.

When I arrived and spoke with the event organizers, I was surprised to learn that they had tried to contact we back in January to no avail when they were putting ideas and the lineup together for the contest. The gal who was in charge, Fen, cited several of my eating exploits and knew a lot about me and said she even tried to go through the IFOCE to get a hold of me but never got a response. I was both honored and very dissappointed that we never connected in time to collaborate more.

Anyway, at that time I agreed to help out with what I could for the event, do a short interview on stage before the contest, and make sure everyone knew what they were getting in to.

There were some very notable individuals in the contest including current ESPN analyst and former Washington Husky and Seattle Seahawk quarterback Brock Huard, Apprentice runner-up James Sun, along with runner-up in last year's WA Gubernatorial race (I voted for Dino) Dino Rossi, and current King County Council Member nominee for County Executive, Dow Constantine.

I had met Brock Huard briefly last year at the Detlef Shrempf Celebrity Golf Tournament and I spoke to him before the contest - he was nervous as hell and he couldn't figure out why. I told him it was a good thing that he was taking it serious and that he would do well because of his competitiveness. At that point, I was pretty sure it was going to come down to Brock and Paul.

Okay, on to the contest results, it was only supposed to be a 2 minute contest but it ended up going about 3 minutes.

Results:

1 - Paul Constant - 23 spring rolls
2 - Brock Huard - 21 spring rolls
3 - Toby Crittenden - 12
4 - James Sun - 11
5 - Dino Rossi - 8
6T - Angela Garbes - 6
6T - Dow Constantine
8 - Uncle Bob - 4

Both Brock and Paul were very impressive and did much better than I though they would do. The contest was supposed to be 2 minutes, but I realized about 2 and 1/2 minutes in to the contest that no one was keeping the time so I ran over to the MC and told him to count down from 10 to end the contest. I took some pictures (below) and video but Brock was very adamant before the contest that he did not want any videos posted online so I will wait until someone else does first. I think Brock was worried he would embarrass himself but Brock, if you happen to read this, you have nothing to be ashamed of, you did very well. The spring rolls were small but as I said both Brock and Paul were very impressive with their speed and final totals, they represented Seattle well.


Winner Paul Constant of The Stranger posing with the trophy

Brock Huard in the foreground getting mentally prepared

I mentioned to Brock that he should stand instead of sit, a few followed