Few takers for sausage-eating contest

Deni Putri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Who can eat the most sausages? This was the challenge issued by Hotel Sari Pan Pacific but, unfortunately, only eight competitors showed up for the event, which was supposed to attract the attention of the public.

Only eight competitors -- visitors, hotel staff from various hotels and journalists -- took part in the Sept. 26 event.

Yoga Santri Perdana, a hotel employee who competed in the event, said he came to the Sari Pan Pacific to improve his pastry and food decorating skills.

While Kusbandi, who came along with his colleague from Maharaja hotel, said they both came to check out Sari Pan Pacific's homemade sausages. When an organizer offered them to chance to join the competition, they found it hard to resist.

During the actual competition, Kusbandi almost gave up just into the seventh minute, his eyes reddened after eating a spicy beef sausage.

His colleague looked more relaxed, too busy gobbling down a sausage to smile.

Participants were also offered a glass of beer by the organizers. But most of them turned it down due to a full stomach after eating the sausages.

Only four of the 14 kilograms of Germany style and long beef sausages, prepared by the hotel's chef, were consumed by the eight competitors.

The three-day Sausage, Butchery, Bakery and Pastry Product Fair was aimed at increasing the hotel's food sales up to 15 percent and to promote its new products such as liver, blood and fish sausages; smoked tuna fish and trout and stuffed chicken breast and leg, said the hotel's wholesale operation manager Deddy Oriadi.

"The Who Can Eat the Most Sausage competition was supposed to attract visitors to the fair as well as to promote our homemade sausages," said the hotel's marketing communications manager Fika G. Kansil.

Deddy said the organizers had already advertised the event in a weekly magazine and invited many people from around 150 cafes, hotels and embassies throughout Jakarta to join the event.

The organizers had prepared attractive vouchers as prizes, but when it came to the competition itself, they were unprepared to choose the winner as the organizers had yet to assign the judges until 30 minutes before it started.

However, despite any shortcomings, the event was still well received by participants, supporters and the audience.

To everyone's surprise, the winner was a mother of two sons, Augustine. She managed to eat 410 grams of sausage and claimed to like it.

Her friends showed their support by yelling and clapping during the competition.

The third place winner, a reporter from Selera magazine, only consumed 115 grams of sausage. He said his reason for giving up was because the sausages were too spicy for him.

Deddy, who has been working with the hotel since 1982, promised that the hotel would stage a better and livelier competition in the future and it would become an annual event.