ON ONE DAY EACH YEAR, WE'RE ALL COMPETITIVE EATERS
Tomorrow is the day. Turkey Day. For competitive eaters, Thanksgiving is like the best holiday of the entire year (right next to Halloween, which is when many of us discovered our talents, many Superman costumes ago).Of all the Thanksgiving fare, I'm definitely a green been casserole kind of guy. You know what I'm talking about...green beans, cream of mushroom soup and those cripsy onion things on top. It's weird because I don't eat a lot of green beans the rest of the year (they're not even in my top 5 of favorite vegetables) and I don't eat green bean casserole but maybe three times January through December. That's good. I wouldn't want it to lose it's charm.
The turkey, of course, is excellent as well. Mashed potatoes (don't apologize for the chunks, mom, I like 'em that way). Today is the Axia 3 Thanksgiving Invitational. About a dozen of the best eaters in the nation will face off. The discipline? Whole turkeys. My head aches at the awesomeness of that contest.
Of course, turkey contains a lot of tryptophan, an amino acid that triggers the production of the calm and sleep inducing chemical, serotonin. But it's actually a myth that the turkey and its tryptophan is what causes drowsiness. Truth is, tryptophan actually works best as a free amino acid and on an empty stomach (you like how I'm spouting this off like I know it off the top of my head?), but the tryptophan in turkey is acutally part of a protein. For some reason, that means it doesn't work quite the same way. What really causes us to be sleepy is just over-eating, lots of carbohydrates and, you guessed it, branched chain amino acids. Like the kind found in green bean casserole.
Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to everyone!
posted by Dave S. at 7:56 AM
6 Comments:
God, I should have some eaters over to my place some Thanksgiving. In high school, I had a bunch of guy friends whose families didn't do Thanksgiving, so they'd come over. The were like little amateur competitive eaters (back before I knew what that was) and they'd not eat for days while stretching their stomachs with gallons of water. This was like Christmas come early for my mom, who delights in nothing more than feeding hungry guys lots of food, and kinda cooks for them even when they can't come. This year? Six people. Three pies.
11:25 AM
post an address and we're there
4:03 PM
With Chris working this year it was a nice quiet T-day but with enough food for a family of 8... a 12 lb. turkey, a massive amount of stuffing, her family's kick ass broccoli and cheese casserole, mashed tates, white gravy, jellied and whole cranberry, rolls. The works. I devoured one massive plate, let it set awhile and then laid into a second turkey thigh around kickoff of the late football game. Luckily, I finished my food and wine-athon in time to get plenty of sleep and actually made it to the gym this morning. But those leftovers are calling my name...
12:46 PM
Happy Thanksgiving Mega Munch! I knew this was you favorite holiday. It wasn't pizza, but I certainly did some damage on my mom's 20 lb turkey. (What drives a woman to make a 20lb turkey for 4 people? I'll never understand my parents...)
5:07 PM
Happy Thanksgiving Mega Munch! I knew this was you favorite holiday. It wasn't pizza, but I certainly did some damage on my mom's 20 lb turkey. (What drives a woman to make a 20lb turkey for 4 people? I'll never understand my parents...)
5:07 PM
Princess, I've tasted your mom's baking and the fact that she made a 20 pound turkey for four people just confirms that if I were 20 years older and she was single...I'll stop right there.
6:44 PM
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