On our way back to Rio from Chicago, Abdul Karim and I stopped off in New Orleans for a bit. The Big Easy has always been one of my favorite cities, and it pained me to see the devastation it went through in 2005. But it was back, and so was I.
I wanted to keep a low profile, and Abdul was in agreement, so we dipped into a little Ethiopian restaurant for a light dinner. It just happened to be all you can eat Yesega Alcha night, so I put in some work. There went my low profile.
One of the cooks noticed how quickly I was putting away his food. He asked if I wanted to represent his restaurant the next day at the Yesega Alcha eating contest. His son, who was supposed to compete, couldn't make it because he had too many episodes of Days on tape that he needed to catch up on. I understood his plight, and I said yes.
The Yesega Alcha eating contest is an officially sanctioned event on the Major League Eating tour, and there were a bunch of pros there, including Kobayashi. I was excited.
I was the only one there without large cups of liquid to dip the food in. I didn't understand that that was some kind of strategy. After the bell rang, I watched Kobayashi as he dipped the pancakes in the liquid, and then tried to sop up the food with his fingers. He was unsuccessful, as were the other competitors. I was skilled at eating Ethiopian food: I knew how to get the most possible food on those pancakes and stuff it down quickly. It was an easy victory.
After the trophy was bestowed upon me, Kobayashi and his translator took me aside. They asked if I would be his personal trainer for next year's Yesega Alcha eat-off. I told them no. I felt it was necessary for him to understand Ethiopian cuisine on a deeper level, like I did, as opposed to just seeing how much he could scarf down in as little time as possible. Only with that understanding could he unlock the mystery of the Yesega Alcha.
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