Web Extra! Slideshow
Members of Team Two Fish arrived at the competition wearing goggles, matching pink sandals, pink capes and swimming caps, touting the importance of intimidation. But it was the large shovels and workman-like attitude from Team D.X. that proved to be the difference.
A colorful, if not gluttonous competition Monday saw contestants attempting to eat more than 7 pounds of ice cream at a near-nauseating pace. The fourth annual Trough Competition hosted by the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor saw a new champion emerge as last year’s winner cheered from the sidelines.
Hector Martinez, Jessica Hernandez and Mariano Hernandez made up Team D.X. Their winning strategy?
“We got more in our mouths at one time,” Martinez said.
With last year’s record setting team, Cak Cak Cak, looking on, Team D.X. finished the 7.5 pounds of ice cream in 8 minutes, 28 seconds.
Though “tackling the trough” poses its own gastronomic challenges, staying clean during the course of such furious eating is an even bigger problem. Mariano Hernandez ended the competition with mint chocolate chip ice cream all over his head, though he couldn’t have been bothered. After eating more than 2 pounds of ice cream in less than 10 minutes, Hernandez said, “I just want my head to stop spinning.”
The three members of the winning team, along with the three members of Team Chivas, were representing Interiors Around You, the company that built the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor’s new location on Madison Street. The shop moved earlier this year from a smaller storefront.
The adult trough competition was preceded by a record-setting version of the same competition held for kids. The three teams, The Gluttonous Scoopinators, Team Bullet, and Brain Freeze Republic, were challenged to eat a 3.5-pound sundae complete with whip cream, sprinkles and a cherry.
In the frantic push to eat as much of the frozen treat as possible, ice cream was flung several feet. The shouts of parents coaching from the sidelines quickly morphed into an indiscernible wall of sound. Through it all, Lauren Wilkes, 12, Clark Doig, 13, and Michael Winters, 11, of The Gluttonous Scoopinators, emerged victorious.
“I am happy we won, but I feel like I am going to vomit,” Doig said.
The Scoopinators abandoned their spoons, and never actually scooped the ice cream into their mouths. Instead, they alternated between sticking their heads right into the trough, and dropping the ice cream in hot water and drinking it.
Doig, needing to finish every last drop of ice cream, was forced to lap melted ice cream off the table before his team was declared the winner.
The Gluttonous Scoopinators sucked down all 3.5 pounds of ice cream in 9 minutes, 40 seconds, the fastest kids’ time in the competition’s four-year history.
Included in the winning team’s prize package is a free scoop of Brown Cow ice cream every year for a week. It may be a while before Doig, or any of the other victors, has any interest in claiming his gift.
