shrimp wontons

MRTed down to Junction 8 yesterday to watch the CP Biggest Eater Competition 2010 Shrimp Wonton with P. Hadn’t been to J8 since J2, so when I got out of the station I tried to orientate myself and figure out where various landmarks like RI and MOELC were. J8 looks totally different from what I remembered, but P said it’s been this way since we were in JC.

The event started around 1 pm but we only reached the J8 atrium around 3.30 pm. Apparently, final heats for the 25 male finalists were held in the first couple of hours, and the top four would then go on to compete alongside the professional eaters, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi (the latter was mainly why P wanted to watch this ;) ).

When we got to the atrium, the sole female round was going to start onstage. The parapets overlooking it were clogged with people so we stood behind an escalator at the far end. The angmoh emcee wore a straw boating hat which I found rather odd and he sounded like he had just walked out of a World Wrestling Federation set.

Then the round started! All the contestants (five female contestants plus professional eater Juliet Lee) immediately started stuffing their mouths with as many shrimp wontons as they could and continued for the next eight minutes. The crowd cheered and clapped. CP had even given out red inflatable clappers so I told P it looked like the red shirt protests going on in Thailand.

Oddly enough, eight minutes seemed like an eternity…… then: five, four, three, two, one! And the round ended. The CP officials came to the stage and toted up how much each woman had eaten. After a while, they announced the results. The top female contestant had eaten 70, and Juliet Lee (who’s bloody skinny!) had eaten more than twice that – 160!

The crowd dispersed, so P and I were able to stand at a spot closer to the stage. The table was cleared and new bottles of mineral water and bowls of shrimp wontons were brought in.

By this time the crowd had swelled significantly. Sure, the female round was exciting, but this was the real deal! The angmoh emcee enthusiastically introduced Takeru Kobayashi (who lifted his shirt and showed off his taut abs!!!), followed by Joey Chestnut, and then the top male contestants, onstage. All the contestants warmed up by shaking the bowls, apparently so that the wontons would be easier to remove later.

And then the emcee declared the round started! All the contestants started shovelling wontons down their throats and gulping down water in between. Well, it got kind of nauseating watching them after a while. :P Meanwhile the crowd was still cheering everyone on.

And again: five, four, three, two, one! And the round ended. The CP officials returned onstage to do their counting. The top male contestant had eaten 115! But of course the crowd wanted to know which professional eater had won! The emcee said that the winner had eaten two more bowls of five wontons each than the other, and revealed the result: Joey Chestnut beat Takeru Kobayashi 380 to 370!!! What a lot of shrimp wontons! What a close call! Everyone cheered louder than ever.

After the hubbub had died down, members of the press went around interviewing various contestants. P and I went down for a closer look at Takeru Kobayashi. The guy has razor-sharp cheekbones and well-muscled arms, and looked like he was wearing makeup (?). P claims that it is the pretty boy look that is fashionable now. Anyway P didn’t want to take a photo with him so I followed him around and tried to capture him from all sorts of angles, even though I’m not even his fan! Haha.

And such was my first time watching an eating competition.