Krystal Square Off--2007

Hey! We are Sadie and Jamie, the HungrySisters. For years, we have been obsessed with food. I know, it is somewhat weird, but we really do love food. Food is our hobby, our joy, our entertainment. We like to eat and cook and watch people eat and cook. Food has always been a big part of our lives--which is why we decided to create a blog. A food blog.

One of our biggest food obsessions is Dairy Queen. We are absolutely, 100% addicted to Dairy Queen Blizzards and could both eat them for every meal if it wouldn't have such a tremendous effect on our waistlines. Someday, we dream of owning our own Dairy Queen franchise and bringing Blizzards into the lives of those who just don't experience them enough.

Our other big food obsession is Competitive Eating. We have been following the Nathan's Hot Dog contest for years. We've seen the documentaries on TV and have witnessed a few amateur contests. We recently attended the Krystal Square off in Chattanooga, which was one of the highlights of both of our food-driven lives. We read all of the websites and blogs, and keep up with the IFOCE rankings. Competitive Eaters are our favorite athletes. We dream of attending the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest next July, and if we can save up enough money this year, we plan on making that dream come true.

The next few entries will probably be used to update on food events of our lives from the past--because some are very noteworthy but occurred in real life before we decided to create a foodblog.

The following post was copied and pasted from Jamie's post on our Family's Yahoo Group:

October 29, 2007
Last night, Sadie, Trey, Logan and I got back from our journey to Chattanooga to see the World Krystal Burger eating championship, the second best eating competition in the world! We were excited to say the least.

Saturday morning, Sadie and Trey picked up Logan and me from UNCA, and we set off to go, stopping at the Krystal in Asheville for breakfast in order to set the mood for the trip. I ate an original BREAKFAST SCRAMBLER which was delicious and Sadie ate a Chicken Biscuit--the chicken was dipped in sausage gravy. Delicious.

On the way to Chattanooga, we stopped for lunch at another Krystal (right outside of Knoxville) where all four of us enjoyed Krystal Burgers. We also sampled some of the new chicken sandwiches. When we got back on the interstate, we saw a sign for Mayfeild Dairy Farms and tours, so we decided to stop there. We took a free tour of the factory, where they filled the milk cartons, made ice cream etc. We didn't get free ice cream, but we bought some and it was delicious. I had a cookies and cream milkshake and Sadie had a scoop of birthday cake ice cream.

We finally got back on the road and eventually arrived in Chattanooga. We checked into our hotel, which to our surprise was right beside the Krystal Headquarters! We stayed in the Days Inn Rivergate. Great location--right downtown--and the price was right. We explored the town and rode around just for fun on the free city-transit buses. BTW, CHATTANOOGA RULES.

We ate dinner, not at Krystal, though. We went to TGI Fridays instead. Our waiter, though, was wearing a Krystal Square Off T-shirt. We ended up watching part of Road Trip on TBS and fell asleep pretty early.

The next morning we were ready for the festivities to begin. We ate breakfast at this awesome cafe connected to our hotel. Sadie and I both ordered Chocolate Chip Pancakes. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the riverside where the contest was to take place. We arrived about 2 hours early, but we didn't have anything better to do, so we watched the Krystal People set up the area for the contest. While we were waiting, we met Crazy Legs Conti!!!! It was the coolest thing ever. It was our first encounter meeting a real-live competitive eater; one who we have seen on TV many, many times. Very exciting!!!

At 12, they opened everything up and began serving free Krystals and apple turnovers (which were delicious). We ate and walked around to the different games and activities that were taking place. We played blackjack and all won free Krystal coupons (and I won a free t shirt for getting 21 :]) and we bought fan t shirts to commemorate the day. Eventually, we had all gotten free t shirts by playing games--in addition to the ones we bought.

Around 1:30, we knew it was time for the eaters to come in and sign autographs, and we seriously couldn't wait to meet all of the eaters. We started the line as the eaters paraded in convertibles down the street. They came to the autograph stand one by one, starting with the ones who ate the least burgers to qualify.

Trey, Logan, Sadie and I were completely star stuck as we went down the line and talked to the celebrities. We got all of their autographs, and took some pictures with a few of them. They were all really nice, friendly people. I guess its because they are just normal folks who like to eat. When the competition was over they had to go back to their normal lives.

Anyway, after getting autographs, we got seats 2 rows back and waited for everything to start. There was an amateur contest with teams of two trying to see who could eat 12 krystals the fastest. Logan and I tried to enter, but they chose the contestants at random, what a letdown.

Finally, the cameras were on and the contestants came onto the stage! George Shay, who is one of the coolest men in the world, did a great time of "prepping the audience" before the contest began.

The contest started and it was pretty intense; everyone had hopes of breaking the 100 mark, because last years champion, Kobayashi, won with eating 97 Krystals. Speaking of Kobayashi, we were pretty let down that he wasn't at the contest. He initially got us interested in the sport of competitive eating. Maybe we'll get to see him at Nathan's in July.

Anyway, the crowning moment of the contest was when Joey Chestnut broke the 100 mark and stopped for a brief moment to smile. That was just awesome. Joey ended up winning the contest, eating 103 burgers, followed by Humble Bob in 2nd place, and Pat Bertoletti in 3rd.

After the eight minutes were up, we walked back to where the eaters were and talked to a few of them as we ate some left-over Krystals. It was a day I don't believe any of us will forget. The coolest part about it was that we could just go back stage after the contest and see our heroes, the gurgitators we admire and respect. There was no security to keep us away. Competitive eating is the best sport in the universe.

On the way home, we stopped at 3 more Krystals between Chattanooga and Asheville. We couldn't wait to get home and watch the ESPN recording and the video Sadie made of the trip.

Next Stop: NATHANS? WE HOPE SO.