Flushing Woman Is Dumpling Eating Contest Winner
BY DAN MILLER

Photo Dan Miller/DMD Images Winners of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest (l., holding trophy) Joseph Menchetti and (r., holding trophy) Floria Lee. Each winner received a check for $1,000 from Chef One Food Products. The mascot for the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team stands between them.

While more than 150 rowing teams competed in the 18th annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat races on Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this past weekend, almost 50 men and women took their chance at becoming this year's Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Dumpling Eating Contest winners. Each contestant had two minutes to eat all the dumplings they could handle.

Flushing resident Floria Lee ate 33 dumplings to earn the crown as the women's champion. Joseph Menchetti from Connecticut won the men's contest by downing 66 Chef One chicken dumplings in two minutes for his second victory in a row. Introduced as a professional eater, Menchetti said that this was his fourth championship in the past month.

Judges for this year's contest included Assemblymember Ellen Young, on crutches following a recent bike accident, and state Senators Toby Ann Stavisky and Frank Padavan. Each of the winners took home a trophy and a check for $1,000 from Chef One Food Products.