Kolaches & Jalapeños

Kolache Factory @ Minute Maid Park in Houston, TX
Kolaches in Houston was great. I enjoyed Minute Maid Park and I definitely thought the kolaches were very tasty. They were better than I imagined. I appreciate how well the contest was run too. There were tons of people helping and everything from my perception went very smoothly.
After the contest most of us went over to "The Bus". I think that is what it is called. It's always nice to just hang out and unwind after the show is over. I enjoyed also getting to meet some local competitive eating fans. Apparently they had gone to tamales before and met Pat, Bob, Joey and I don't know who else at the contest, but decided to come watch this contest too. I am very glad they came and I got to meet them. I had heard a lot about them, but they were even cooler than I imagined. In fact I was a bit upset that we did not get the chance to hang out more before things started winding down. Maybe next year for tamales, kolaches, or something in the Houston area we can meet up again. Anyhow, I am glad they came out to support us at the Kolache Factory contest.
Thank you everyone for making it a fun and successful contest.

La Costeña Jalapeños in Chicago, IL
La Costeña Jalapeños were delicious. I could definitely feel the heat. It really wan't too bad because I had a jug of whole milk to sip on(thanks Pat for picking that up for me at the store). I was hoping for a 10 minute contest so I could try and break the 200 peper mark at least. My start was very slow...as usual, but around the 2 minute mark I got smart and switched to milk instead of water and got my swallowing speed moving. After was all said and done, Patrick had created separation from the pack the size of the grand canyon in only a few minutes. Who knows if he could have done hundreds more given the time? Could that be possible? I know if I still had room he did too. I noticed when they stopped us I had just used that oncoming speed to catch up with one of my favorite eaters Mr. Rich LeFevre at 120 peppers. I then immediately realized that like the Locost that he is he had not only eaten the pepper, but about half the stem. What an animal! This was my first time ever touching a full jalapeno and I didn't even know that this part of the pepper was edible. Sonya also kicked some jalapeno butt. I was honored to eat next to her. I am always shocked how fast she is out of the gate. I really enjoy seeing her get her eat on. This weekend I was so lucky as to see her twice! That makes for a good weekend.

I was very glad to see a full field of eaters that I do not get to see very often. Erik "The Red" Denmark was there fresh off a pair of pepper eating records. Steakbellie and Wing Kong made it at the last minute rocking out to the soundtrack from Repo Man due to the fact that the location was crazy hard to find and when you did get there the parking was insane. Luckily my ride had Patrick driving, so we could find the place easy and a huge Mexican flag hanging out the window so when we got there we would be welcomed with open arms. Below is a pic with the list of everyone there. I got a lot of time before and after to chat with everyone. It was really cool to be able to really talk with everyone and hear their experience with the eating circut. I wish I could write all about every conversation I had, but I could go on forever. Bottom line is I really enjoyed getting to catch up with everyone and I had a lot of fun!