The popular Pirohy o tri rohy (Tri-corned Pies) event hosted its fourth competition on August 18 in Hrabkov in the Prešov District. The local pies are unique due to their triangular shape, while the object of the competition is to eat as many pies in the shortest amount of time possible.
Organiser Marián Čech told the TASR newswire that women from the municipality were preparing the pirohy as early as 6:00 in the morning, as the competition started at 10:30. Altogether, they made 2,500 pies filled with bryndza, the traditional Slovak cheese made from sheep’s milk. Some of the pirohy were prepared for the competitors while the rest were eaten by local onlookers. The cooks used 60 kilograms of flour, 50 eggs, half a litre of water, 0.2 kilogram of salt, 5 kilograms of bryndza and 30 kilograms of potatoes. “Altogether, we cooked 2,500 pirohy – and all of them were eaten,” chef Ľubomír Brza told the www.cas.sk webportal.
“In previous years, locals from Hrabkovo have won and we would like to find someone else who is a worthy rival who can maybe even win and take the ‘Challenge Cup’ someplace else,” Čech said before the competition started. But he added that this will not be easy, as the locals are really good eaters. “It is not an easy task, as in duels, 35 big pies must be eaten, and the number increases in the semi-finals and finals,” he explained.
The competition’s results proved him right – the cup again went to the locals, and the biggest pie-eater was Martin Lipták, aged 30, from Hrabkov. After a play-off tournament, in which two teams were seated against each other with the faster one proceeding to the next level, Lipták’s team ate 40 pies in 1 minute and 8 seconds. Lipták himself ate 45 pies in the course of the competition. To make the competition even more challenging, contestants had their fingers tied so that they were only able to use three of them.
Even women competed in this discipline, but they were unable to match the winning team, whose members had to sustain their big appetites in later consecutive rounds.
