Check it out… This Is Why You’re Fat.

Found about 6 of these ’sardines’ inside this squid the other day.

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Takeru Kobayashi is a Japanese competitive eater and a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

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Beautiful… He puts all good eaters to shame.

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Kobayashi expands his stomach for a competition by eating larger and larger amounts of food, and then exercises to ensure that fat will not impede expansion of his stomach during a competition.

Physically Kobayashi has undergone drastic change from his earlier appearances on the competitive eating circuit, weighing in at a mere 50 kg in his beginning competitions and then 65 kg in later events. This is due in large part to his more recent endeavors in weight training. By training with weights and working out, Kobayashi has increased his metabolism, which in turn has helped him to burn more calories. This training is used by Kobayashi to maintain his overall health as well as helping him to prevent excess calories from being stored as fat. Kobayashi’s official Web site gives his height as 173 cm and his weight as 75 kg, but in a June 29 2006, entry on his blog, he says that his weight grew to over 87 kg during 2006, still being under 10 percent body fat. Kobayashi has said in recent years that he consumes an average of 6,000 calories per day.

Kobayashi is also known for his trademark body wiggle, referred to by some as the ‘Kobayashi Shake’, to force food down his oesophagus and settle more compactly in his stomach.

A few of Kobayashi’s eating achievements….

83 vegetarian jiaozi dumplings in 8 minutes

100 roasted pork buns in 12 minutes

31 bunless hot dogs in 2 minutes and 36 seconds

58 bratwurst sausages in 10 minutes

41 Summer Shack Lobster Rolls in 10 minutes

8kg of cow brains in 15 minutes

9kg of rice balls in 30 minutes

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. 

Mochitsuki is the traditional mochi-pounding ceremony in Japan.

1. Polished glutinous rice is soaked overnight and cooked.
2. The cooked rice is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. They must keep a steady rhythm or they may accidentally injure one another with the heavy kine.
3. The sticky mass is then formed into various shapes (usually a sphere or cube).

I’ve only ever eaten sweet mochi usually filled with a red or white bean paste and they’re delicious. I once had it fried fried for dessert at Yamato (223 Exhibition Street Melbourne). I haven’t seen it on any menus as part of a savoury dish but I reckon I would love it – the texture is amazing. Guess I’ll just have to wait until I go to Japan.

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