The Sport of Food Fighting, La Tomatina, Hummus War and other Food Related Sports
People like a good competition, even if it comes in any form. For some odd reason, people like to throw food at each other and even this act of flinging food becomes a serious competition. There is a festival in Spain called ‘La Tomatina’, which lays the claim to being the world's biggest food fight. Another interesting food fight that took place was called the ‘Hummus War’ and it is one of the more interesting competitions involving food out there. Also there are interesting contests that people like to take part in such as making the largest helping or portion of a certain food item. Food competitions are interesting because they can be compared to a sporting event.
Why do people take part in food fights, and what sort of enjoyment do they get from throwing food at other people? It seems that there is a sense of fun in chucking food at other people, but like sporting contests there is also a sense of competition with throwing more food on another person and winning. There is really no way to gauge how someone would win a food fight, but people can get pretty serious when they have food to fling at each other.
The world's biggest food fight takes place in a small town in Spain called Bunol in the Valencia area. Almost 30,000 people descend upon the town to take part in the festival. A staggering 240,000 tomatoes are thrown by people during this immense food fight. Trucks bring the tomatoes in, and people don eye protection and then proceed to pelt each other with the fruit. History tells us that the origins of this event took place in the same town when a group of young men got into a fight near a vegetable stall in 1944 and started to throw tomatoes at each other. Even though it is a very interesting and cultural event, it is a serious waste of tomatoes. 240,000 tomatoes could be distributed to the hungry around the world instead of being wasted in a food fight.
Another very interesting food fight takes place in the Middle East called the ‘Hummus War’. This interesting contest takes place between Lebanon and Israel and it is to see who can produce the largest single amount of hummus in one go. First Israel set the record with an amazing vat of the regional delicacy weighing 8998 pounds. Lebanon shot back with their own attempt, and they managed to bring in 300 chefs and prepare a dish of hummus that was almost 10 tonnes in weight beating the Israeli attempt. Both Israel and Lebanon claim hummus as their national dish and the contest might be heating up again with Israel probably preparing a counter-strike to the Lebanese. It is interesting to think of this as a sporting competition with two teams competing for a prize of making something that is the biggest and defeating their rivals.
People from all over the world try and make the biggest food items. In Australia, a cafe owner has laid claim to producing the world's biggest burger. He managed to produce a huge 210 pound monster of a burger and he says it is the biggest in the whole world, (United Press, 2010). There have been many others who have tried to make the biggest burger in the world, and the contest looks all set to continue. People will keep on trying to better each other and one day someone will make a bigger burger than the one made in Australia. In Iowa, people have made the world's biggest pizza. A pizza was made that measured 192 x 92 feet across and could make 50,000 slices, and is now the world's largest pizza. It seems as if everyone in the world is in some sort of contest with someone else, whether it is in making burgers or hummus or pizzas.
Food fighting and people trying to outdo each other in the size of food they produce will continue for the foreseeable future. It seems there is a contest going on very much like a sporting one even in the realm of food. Just how close food fighting is to sports is debatable, and people should make up their own minds about it. The similarities are there as are the differences, but the spirit of competition is strong in both of them.
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