Jeudi

The Black Widow, after the peel

by Brad Rhines

Don’t let her size fool you.  Though she weighs in at just under 100 pounds, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas can put away more food than men twice her size, and she can do it faster.  Ranked as the #4 eater in the world by Major League Eating, an organization that oversees professional eating contests, Thomas once again ate her away to victory at the Rouses Crawfish Eating World Championship on Saturday at the French Quarter Festival.     

Hailing from Alexandria, Virginia, Thomas has found plenty of success eating in the Big Easy.  This year’s event was the third annual contest and the third victory for Thomas, who continues to crush the competition when it comes to crustaceans.  And she’s not bad at bivalves, either.  In addition to being the three-time crawdad champ, Thomas won the 2010 Acme Oyster Eating Contest, and she holds the MLE record for oysters after slurping down 46 dozen in 10 minutes back in 2005.  

On Saturday, Thomas scarfed down 3.3 pounds of crawfish in 10 minutes.  This year’s total was less than her world record setting performance in 2011, when she ate a total of 6.5 pounds, though she had more time to do so, as last year’s contest found Thomas in an overtime eat-off with Baton Rouge native Adrian Morgan.

Morgan, a relative newcomer to the Major League Eating scene, has impressed the veterans and now holds a #7 ranking among the elite eaters of the MLE.  While a victory at home would have been nice, Morgan had to settle for third this year with 2.45 pounds, finishing behind fan-favorite Crazy Legs Conti from New York City, who ate his way to second place with 2.8 pounds.

By way of comparison, Da Paper’s James Karst won an amateur contest featuring members of the local media earlier in the day, eating 1 pound of crawfish and edging ahead of last year’s amateur winner, WDSU’s Travers Mackel.