International back-to-back: Poutine to Pumpkin Pie10/4 and 10/5

In less than two weeks time, a big weekend for MLE and yours truly will be taking place on the road. First, a poutine eating contest sponsored by Smoke's Poutinerie in Toronto on Saturday, October 4th.

I've been drooling over this contest for the past 4 years, always wanting to be there but never being able to work out the travel. This year, for whatever reason, the timing and travel costs are going to work and I'm going to be there to smash fries, gravy, and cheese curds. The food will be served in 1/2 pound boxes composed of 3.5 ozs of fries, .5 ozs of cheese curds, and 4 ozs of gravy. No word yet on how the metric conversion will be dealt with.

2013 giant pumpkin winner, 1536 lbs!

 As much as I love Canada (I truly do), I won't have too much time to digest the poutine and post-contest carbonations, because I'll be jumping on a plane that evening and heading back out West for Sunday's  Pumpkin Pie eating contest sponsored by the                      Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival in Elk Grove, CA (near Sacramento). This is the inaugural event and being a West coast contest, it's hard not to be there as they are few and far between. I love it when the competitive eating world gets to clash with these unique festivals and foods because the kind of crowd that makes it out to Elk Grove for a giant pumpkin festival is typically our target audience: entertaining weirdos being entertained by weirdos. I can't wait.


Check back for pictures, videos, and results.