Pancakes goin’ down

Deirdre Newman

The Orange County fair is all about indulging in your favorite foods,

and Saturday’s Pancake Pandemonium Pancake Eating Contest was no

exception.

The contest, at the fair’s Kids Stage, encouraged children to see

how many pancakes they could scarf down the fastest.

The rules were simple: drink water if you think you’re choking,

and you don’t win until you’ve swallowed your last bite.

While the 5-years-old-and-younger age group got to stuff the

pancakes in their mouths themselves, the 6 to 10 year olds had the

added challenge of having to put their hands behind their back and

have one of their parents feed them the pancakes.

Suzi Asroui, 9, and mother, Karla proved their mettle as the

pancake-eating champs.

“Her friend, Olivia, was doing the contest and [encouraged] Suzi,

and she almost chickened out,” Karla said about her daughter.

But Suzi kept her pancake face on and prevailed. The secret to

rapid pancake eating?

“Folding it and putting it in her mouth,” Karla Asroui said.

The water helped, too, Suzi said.

“It made [the pancakes] softer and easier to swallow,” she said.

Her friend, Olivia Walmsley, 10, who came in third, said she was

surprised at how difficult the contest was.

“It was really hard to eat it really fast,” Olivia said. “It

thought I was going to throw up.”

The contest is sponsored by Hometown Buffet, and the winners of

each contest get a certificate for $4.99 off at the restaurant.